Only one Senate Republican has voted against all three of President Donald Trump’s most controversial Cabinet picks: Tulsi Gabbard, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Pete Hegseth.
It’s not Lisa Murkowski. Or Susan Collins. It’s Mitch McConnell!
McConnell completed the trifecta on Thursday, voting “no” on RFK Jr. because of the nominee’s anti-vaccine rhetoric.
“In my lifetime, I’ve watched vaccines save millions of lives from devastating diseases across America and around the world,” McConnell, a polio survivor, said in a statement. “I will not condone the re-litigation of proven cures, and neither will millions of Americans who credit their survival and quality of life to scientific miracles.”
Mitch McConnell, it would seem, has found his conscience — after years of carrying out Trump’s wishes as the Senate Republican leader.
The truth, of course, is that McConnell has always loathed Trump. (And for good reason as the president has savaged both McConnell and his wife at every turn). McConnell has always believed that Trump is bad for the Republican party.
What changed? Two things.
McConnell is no longer leader — and is free to vote however he wants without worrying about what signal it sends to the broader GOP conference
McConnell isn’t running again in 2026. He hasn’t announced that yet but he is in his 80s and his health is not great. So he isn’t concerned about what being on the wrong side of Trump means for his political life.
Which, great for him.
But, I would remind you that McConnell swung and missed on the biggest vote of his life: Whether or not to impeach and convict Trump after the January 6, 2021 riots and potentially bar him from running for office again.
McConnell clearly believed Trump was to blame for January 6. But, he decided to grab a loophole — Trump was no longer in office and therefore couldn’t be impeach/convicted! — to vote not to convict.
Had McConnell voted to convict Trump, he may well have provided cover for another 6-10 Republican Senators to vote the same way. (As it was, 7 GOP Senators voted to impeach Trump.) And had that happened, Trump would have been convicted — and history might well be very different.
When we look back at Trump’s time in office, I believe that vote — and McConnell’s decision in particular — will be regarded as a pivot point, the last chance Republicans had to stop him from returning.
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