Mitch McConnell to step down as Republican leader in US Senate

Mitch McConnell of Kentucky will step down as Republican leader in the US Senate at the end of this year in a move that will shake up US politics even more as the country faces an already tumultuous election cycle.

McConnell is 82 and the longest-serving Senate leader in history. He is also a highly divisive figure in a bitterly divided America and the subject of fierce speculation about his health after recent scares in public. McConnell announced the move in a speech on the Senate floor on Wednesday.

Aides said the decision to step aside was not related to McConnell’s health.

“One of life’s most under-appreciated talents is to know when it’s time to move on to life’s next chapter,” McConnell said. “So I stand before you today … to say that this will be my last term as Republican leader of the Senate.”

McConnell was concurrently the subject of reporting and speculation about when he will endorse Donald Trump for president.

The two men have been at odds since 6 January 2021, when Trump incited supporters to attack Congress in an attempt to stop certification of his defeat by Joe Biden. McConnell voted to acquit Trump in his resulting impeachment trial but excoriated him nonetheless.

Withstanding 91 criminal charges, assorted civil defeats and attempts to remove him from the ballot for inciting an insurrection, Trump stands on the brink of securing the Republican presidential nomination.

All bar one of McConnell’s leadership team have now endorsed Trump.

“Believe me,” McConnell said, “I know the politics within my party at this particular moment in time ... That said, I believe more strongly than ever that America’s global leadership is essential to preserving the shining city on a hill that Ronald Reagan discussed. As long as I