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Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is keeping his spot as the Senate’s top Republican. […] McConnell was nominated and seconded by Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Sen.-elect Todd Young (R-Ind.). …

‘After eight years of the Obama administration, the American people have chosen a new direction for our nation. President-elect Trump has a significant opportunity to bring our nation together.’WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell made the following statement today regarding the Presidential election of Donald J. Trump:“I congratulate President-elect Trump on his historic election. After eight years of the Obama administration, the American people have chosen a new direction for our nation. President-elect Trump has a significant opportunity to bring our nation together.” "It is my hope and intent that we succeed in the years ahead by...

On Wednesday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell mostly made nice with Trump but also shot down or expressed little enthusiasm in some of his plans. On Trump's proposal to impose term limits on Congress, McConnell said, "It will not be on the agenda in the Senate." McConnell has been a long-standing opponent of term limits, as NPR's Susan Davis reports. "I would say we have term limits now — they're called elections." McConnell also threw some cold water on Trump's infrastructure plans, calling it not a top priority. McConnell did say repealing Obamacare is a "pretty high item on our...

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Sen. Mitch McConnell’s audacious — and roundly criticized — decision to block President Obama’s nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court pending the results of the presidential election has paid off handsomely for conservatives, who until this morning had every reason to suspect the end of their long-running project to reshape the court. Donald J. Trump’s victory means the court will almost certainly have a conservative majority for years to come. Challenges to regulation by administrative fiat, class-action lawsuits and restrictions on property use will find a more hospitable court, while laws restricting abortion and promoting the rights of religious organizations...

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell hinted Wednesday that he doesn’t support the controversial idea of changing Senate rules to kill Democratic filibusters, and instead indicated that this move might be seen as an overreach by Republicans. When Democrats ran the Senate, they changed the rules to allow for simple majority votes for judicial nominees, but not Supreme Court nominees, which can still be filibustered. But despite speculation that Republicans will take this next step, McConnell indicated some resistance to it when asked. He said “overreaching after an election, generally speaking, is a mistake.” And when pressed on McConnell’s approach to...

Donald Trump edges Hillary Clinton by just one point in New Hampshire with less than a week remaining before Election Day, a new poll finds. Trump beats Clinton 40% to 39%, in the latest survey of likely voters from WBUR. Clinton led Trump by three points in WBUR’s prior poll, on Oct. 12. The new survey was taken Saturday through Tuesday, after Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey said the agency was examining new emails related to its probe of Clinton’s private server. Other New Hampshire polls, meanwhile, have given Clinton the lead, as the RealClearPolitics average shows. McConnell’s...

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has made his strongest statement yet in favor of his party's presidential nominee, telling supporters in his home state that "we need a new president, Donald Trump, to be the most powerful Republican in America." McConnell, who has warned repeatedly that Republicans could lose control of the Senate this year, has been silent on Trump in recent weeks as he has come under fire for his statements about women and his claims that the election is rigged against him...

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has never had much to say about Donald Trump. But lately, he has fallen completely silent. As he’s made the rounds in his home state of Kentucky this month, McConnell has either ducked reporters’ questions, or explicitly refused to address the topic he acknowledged was on everyone’s mind: His party’s presidential nominee. […] McConnell’s silence is especially notable in light of Trump’s recent complaints that the election is rigged and he might not ultimately accept the results. Despite a lifetime in public service, McConnell has offered no reaction, passing up the opportunity to defend the...

September was not a good month for Merrick Garland. The Obama administration's efforts to reignite interest in the Supreme Court nominee fizzled. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said for the first time that if elected she would look widely for candidates rather than commit to Garland. And no mention of the shorthanded court was made in Monday's debate.

The Senate’s top Republican Thursday warned that legislation enacted over President Barack Obama’s veto to allow families of Sept. 11 victims to sue Saudi Arabia in U.S. courts may have “unintended ramifications” and that lawmakers should discuss fixes to the measure. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said the White House was too slow to warn about the “potential consequences” of the measure. Both the House and Senate overwhelmingly overrode Obama’s veto of the measure on Wednesday. McConnell said he told the president recently that the 9/11 victims bill “was an example of an issue that we should have talked about...

A key player of the Obama administration’s internet giveaway was unable to offer a straight answer about how the organization that handles the system’s road map would be run, or whether or not it would be moved outside of the United States. At a Senate Judiciary Subcommittee hearing about the proposed internet giveaway at the end of the month, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas (A, 97%) confronted Goran Marby, president and CEO of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which is responsible for maintaining the internet’s address systems. In a particularly tense exchange with Marby, the ICANN chief...

[A number of hard-hitting snippets] ICANN CEO Fadi Chehadé stated in his opening remarks, “China is going to be a central part of where the Internet community, as we know it, is heading. [snip] In addition, ICANN announced during the meeting that it would open its first global engagement office in Beijing [snip] Honorary Chairman of CNNIC’s Steering Committee stated that the “ICANN Engagement Center-Beijing would be not only a new link for ICANN to better develop and promote China's Internet community, but also a new platform for China's Internet community to better contribute to the development of the global...

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Tuesday that the Senate will take up an expected veto override of legislation that lets families of 9/11 victims sue Saudi Arabia in U.S. courts before breaking for the elections. "Both of those we'll have to deal with before we depart," the Senate Republican Leader told reporters. He was referring to the veto override and a separate push to block a proposed arms sale to Saudi Arabia. The Senate had been expected to leave town this week, but McConnell said it was "safe to say" that the Senate would be in town next...

Lawmakers return to Washington this week for an abbreviated election-season session in which they will likely do what they do best: the bare minimum. All Congress must do this month is keep the government from shutting down on Oct. 1 and, with any luck, finally provide money for the fight against the mosquito-borne Zika virus. Republicans controlling Congress promise they won’t stumble now, but the weeks ahead could prove tricky. A chief motivation for the September session, especially for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., is allowing lawmakers to return to campaigning as soon as possible. Republicans are scrambling to...

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell suggested Thursday that Republicans may lose their hold on the upper chamber of Congress in November, Politico reports. Speaking to a civic group in Louisville, Kentucky, McConnell told his home state listeners "I may or may not be calling the shots next year," according to the Associated Press.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Thursday that GOP prospects for keeping control of the Senate after the November elections are “very dicey,” sounding an alarm amid mounting Republican concerns about presidential nominee Donald Trump. […] Twenty-four GOP-held seats are on the ballot this year, compared with 10 for Democrats, he noted. McConnell was promoted to majority leader two years ago when a Republican surge wrested Senate control from Democrats. McConnell did not mention Trump as being a drag on Republican down-ballot races, but he chided Trump’s campaign tactics. The Kentucky senator said he hopes Trump “settles down and follows...

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is signaling that his long political career may stretch well into the next decade. The Kentucky Republican said there's a "great likelihood" he'll seek a seventh Senate term in 2020. McConnell, appearing on WKYT-TV's "Kentucky Newsmakers" program that aired Sunday, said he's "at the top of my game" and has been effective in representing Kentucky.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan have both come out with statements strongly defending Capt. Humayun Khan, a Muslim-American soldier killed in combat in 2004 whose father Khizr Khan made an emotional plea against Donald Trump's candidacy at the Democratic National Convention. The statements come after Trump's controversial response to the Khan family, and after a personal appeal from Khizr Khan to to both the Senate Majority Leader and the House Speaker to denounce the GOP nominee. Neither McConnell nor Ryan mention Trump by name in their statements, but the repudiation of the GOP nominee is...

... Once Congress finishes this week, it will go on a seven-week recess to give both parties a chance to hold presidential nominating conventions, ahead of a five-week August break. ...