Chuck Schumer Explains How Mitch McConnell Can ‘Salvage’ Some Of His Reputation

Senate Majority Chuck Schumer said history won’t be kind to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell but added that the Kentucky Republican has a chance to “salvage some of that reputation” by taking steps to restore the Republican Party to how it was prior to the ascendance of former President Donald Trump.

In an interview with Punchbowl News conducted during the Democratic National Convention and released Monday, Schumer predicted McConnell’s role in pushing the U.S. Supreme Court further to the right in the hope of accomplishing GOP priorities, including the reversal of Roe v. Wade, will “go down poorly” in history.

Schumer also pointed out McConnell’s continued support for Trump despite his disagreements with him on several issues, including Ukraine.

“Even when McConnell thought Trump was wrong, he went along with him too many times,” Schumer said.

While McConnell sharply criticized Trump over his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection, calling him “practically and morally responsible” for the Capitol riot, he still endorsed him in the 2024 race once his final major rival, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, dropped out.

Schumer said that once McConnell leaves his GOP leadership position, he could find a “constructive role” in pushing back against the isolationist foreign policy positions most of his party has adopted under the direction of Trump.

McConnell “can salvage some of that reputation — and I’m not trying to tell him what to do — by trying to get the old Republican Party back,” Schumer said. “He will ally with us in not being isolationist.”

McConnell, for instance, was one of his party’s most ardent advocates for continued U.S. support of Ukraine even as many of his GOP colleagues and Trump balked at the