After 18 years as the longest-serving Senate leader ever, Mitch McConnell is starting the year as a backbencher.
At 82, he’s thinking about his legacy. He recently cooperated on a book about his life, relinquishing his personal papers to the biographer.
After voting against Pete Hegseth for defense secretary, the question is: how much more will McConnell defy President Donald Trump?
Everybody wants to know: what will Mitch do?
Lesley Stahl: You have said that you feel liberated, like Martin Luther King, “Free at last.”
Sen. Mitch McConnell: Yeah, well I—I–
Lesley Stahl: So free for what? Free to do what?
Sen. Mitch McConnell: Well, I– I will be more outspoken about things that I particularly care about than I have been in the past.
Particularly the resurgence of isolationism in today’s Republican party.
Sen. Mitch McConnell: America First– that was what they used in the ’30s. And I’m hopeful the new administration will understand and act, not with just language that says America First, but funding that underscores the nature of the threat. Look, what is the situation? North Korea, China, Russia, Iran. This is a huge threat, a fight between the autocrats and the democracies. And when it comes to the democratic world, only one country can lead, that’s us. And–
Lesley Stahl: That’s fundamental to the difference between what you’re saying and what this administration seems to be saying, which is ‘we don’t want to be the leader of the free world anymore.’
Sen. Mitch McConnell: Well, I could only speak for myself. I– I think it’s dangerous to step aside and assume that by speaking to autocrats they will somehow treat you better.
Lesley Stahl: What about tariffs against our allies?
Sen. Mitch McConnell: It will drive the cost of everything up. In other words, it will be paid for by American consumers. I mean, why would you want to get in a fight with your allies over this?
Lesley Stahl: What about the encroachment on the independence of the Senate, for example? Will you be speaking out about that?
Sen. Mitch McConnell: I sure will! When I was Majority Leader and he was President, he tried to get me to change the filibuster.
Lesley Stahl: Right.
Sen. Mitch McConnell: I said I had a one-word answer: “No.”
Lesley Stahl: In the book, it says that you had a couple of screaming matches on the phone with the president.
Sen. Mitch McConnell: We had a candid relationship, you know.
Lesley Stahl: Candid?
The Trump-McConnell feud has been roiling for a long time.
President Donald Trump (during a March 2023 campaign rally): We do have to do something about Mitch McConnell. He’s, he’s a disaster. He’s a disaster.
Lesley Stahl: President Trump called you, among other things, a “sullen…unsmiling political hack.” You have said some pretty harsh things about him. You’ve said he’s “nasty.” You’ve said he’s “not very smart.” You said he’s a “sleazeball.”
Sen. Mitch McConnell: Well, that was– those were private comments, and–
Lesley Stahl: Well, but they’re in your biography.
Sen. Mitch McConnell: Yeah.
He vented about Donald Trump to his biographer, Michael Tackett, who interviewed him over the last three years.
Lesley Stahl: What’s the most courageous thing he did as leader?
Michael Tackett: The most courageous thing he did as leader was stand up for aid for Ukraine. It wasn’t popular within his party; it wasn’t popular with Donald Trump; it wasn’t popular with JD Vance. But he did it anyway.
Lesley Stahl: What’s the most despicable thing he did?
Michael Tackett: The most contentious thing he did was to block Merrick Garland, not simply from getting a vote in the Senate but from even having a hearing in the Senate.
McConnell single-handedly blocked President Obama’s nomination of Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court.
Sen. Mitch McConnell: One of my proudest moments was when I looked at Barack Obama in the eye and I said, “Mr. President, you will not fill this Supreme Court vacancy.”
This was the first step in McConnell’s engineering of a conservative super majority on the Supreme Court.
Lesley Stahl: What about the way you went about imposing these justices into the system? How do you feel as you look back on your legacy?
Sen. Mitch McConnell: I feel fine about it. I knew that if the shoe was on the other foot–
Lesley Stahl: But is that a good reason?
Sen. Mitch McConnell: –they would’ve done the same thing.
Lesley Stahl: Your biographer, and I’m quoting him, said, “It was a brutish exercise of power.” “Brutish.”
Sen. Mitch McConnell: I just don’t agree.
Lesley Stahl: I know. But what do you think about that sort of image of you?
Sen. Mitch McConnell: I decided political popularity was not my motivation. I was gonna try to help right of center America have a voice and that was what I thought was the most important thing I could do.
Lesley Stahl: Do you take any responsibility that the court has lost so much credibility? There’s been a recent poll that says 70% of the American people think the justices are more influenced by ideology than by being fair and impartial.
Sen. Mitch McConnell: Yeah, the reason their popularity is down is cause the Democrats are criticizing them all the time.
Lesley Stahl: OK, but I’m not talking about popularity. I’m talking about credibility of a major institution.
Sen. Mitch McConnell: But Lesley, their job is not to seek public approval. It’s to follow the law.
Lesley Stahl: So this is your beloved Senate. How do you feel about the Senate?
Sen. Mitch McConnell: Glad to be in the majority.
At 82, he has slowed down, looks frail. There’ve been questions about his health ever since he froze at the microphones in the Capitol over a year ago.
He told us the freeze was caused by a concussion that he suffered from a fall. Seven months later–
Sen. Mitch McConnell: This will be my last term as Republican leader of the Senate.
When he was leader, his trademark was inscrutability.
Reporter: Any comments, Leader McConnell? How do you feel today went?
Sen. Mitch McConnell: I’m— I’m not going to answer questions about when.
He earned the nickname Darth Vader.
Sen. Mitch McConnell: I’m suggesting that I’m not going to answer your question.
Sen. Mitch McConnell: I want to control the message if I can.
Lesley Stahl: Are you doing that right now?
Sen. Mitch McConnell: Yeah.
McConnell’s has been a long and improbable journey. Born in 1942 in rural Alabama, he was stricken with polio at age two. His mother drove him to Warm Springs, Georgia, to the polio facility established by Franklin Roosevelt. The treatment: he wasn’t allowed to walk for two years.
Sen. Mitch McConnell: I was lucky to have a mother who was absolutely determined to do everything she could to get me back to normal.
They moved to Louisville, Kentucky, and when Mitch was in high school, he found his niche in student government.
Lesley Stahl: So he’d been developing his political skills and acumen from the youngest age.
Michael Tackett: He was almost born 40 years old in a suit. I mean, he wanted to be in politics.
McConnell mastered the inside game over his 40 years in the Senate, so much so that Tackett says he’s the most impactful Senate leader since Lyndon Johnson.
Michael Tackett: You can draw a straight line from what he did to shape the courts, to the overturning of Roe v. Wade, to the overturning of affirmative action. By changing the Court, changing the composition of the Court, he changed American life.
But his job became more difficult as his party became more MAGA, and even worse after President Trump used a racial slur against his second wife, Elaine Chao.
Lesley Stahl: Did you ever confront him about what he said about your wife Elaine?
Sen. Mitch McConnell: No, I chose not to engage with him.
Lesley Stahl: And today? You feel OK about that?
Sen. Mitch McConnell: No, I don’t feel OK about it.
Lesley Stahl: How would you describe your relationship with President Trump?
Sen. Mitch McConnell: Well, we haven’t spoken for quite a while. I was very upset about what happened January 6.
Lesley Stahl: You had to be evacuated from the Senate along with other leaders. Your staff was in your office. The rioters were banging on your door. Someone with a flagpole broke a window into your office.
Sen. Mitch McConnell: Yeah. Well, my staff in the Capitol was putting furniture up against the doors.
Lesley Stahl: To prevent them from coming–
Sen. Mitch McConnell: To prevent the rioters from outside from breaking the doors and getting at them. And what was it about? To try to prevent the orderly transfer of government, which had never happened in our country.
Lesley Stahl: Your staff, after the crisis was over, you went and spoke with them. You– it was a highly emotional situation. You remember?
Sen. Mitch McConnell: Oh, I remember well.
Lesley Stahl: Do you remember what you told them?
Sen. Mitch McConnell: That– Yeah, I remember what I told them.
That emotion turned to fury.
Sen. Mitch McConnell: President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of the day.
Sen. Mitch McConnell: That’s the way I still feel about it.
Lesley Stahl: What are your views on President Trump and his supporters trying to change what happened on January 6? They’re calling it a “day of love.” They called the rioters “martyrs.”
Sen. Mitch McConnell: Yeah. No, it– it was an insurrection.
Lesley Stahl: What about the pardons for the people who stormed the Capitol that day?
Sen. Mitch McConnell: I– I think pardoning the people who’ve been convicted is a mistake.
But while he has been critical of the president, he has almost always wound up retracting his claws. Take the impeachment battle – McConnell ended up voting against convicting Mr. Trump at the Senate trial that took place after he had just left office. A conviction could’ve disqualified the ex-president from running for re-election.
Michael Tackett: McConnell thought that the criminal and civil justice system would be there to hold Trump to account for his actions. And as we know, it didn’t happen.
Lesley Stahl: And partly cause of him.
Michael Tackett: The Court he created ended up being the Court that helped to enable Donald Trump to not eventually face prosecution. It was the biggest miscalculation of his political career, and no doubt will be a stain on his legacy.
So now Donald Trump is president again, issuing an onslaught of executive orders and controversial nominees for his cabinet.
McConnell was one of only three Republicans who voted against Pete Hegseth for defense secretary. And while he won’t tip his hand on how he’ll vote on the others —
Sen. Mitch McConnell: I don’t have any news to make on that front.
He did signal some reluctance about the nominee who would oversee the nation’s health care system.
Lesley Stahl: You’re a polio survivor. There is one of the cabinet nominees, RFK Jr., who says that the polio vaccine killed more people than polio. What are your views about that?
Sen. Mitch McConnell: Well, the Polio vaccine has been a huge success.
Lesley Stahl: But what about all of them? Measles, mumps– I mean, chicken pox.
Sen. Mitch McConnell: Oh! Vaccines are critically important to health, to having normal lives.
Lesley Stahl: How important is that issue to you? You know, we’re talking about things you would fight for. You’re free at last. You’re free to speak your mind.
Sen. Mitch McConnell: Well, it’s no surprise that it– it’s a big deal with me.
So what will Mitch do now? Will he lead an opposition to the head of his party? Not likely.
Sen. Mitch McConnell: I expect to support most of what this administration is trying to accomplish. So, what happened in the past is irrelevant to me.
Lesley Stahl: You said that January 6 was “evidence of Donald Trump’s complete unfitness for office.”
Sen. Mitch McConnell: I said, shortly after January 6, that if he were the nominee for president, I would support him.
Lesley Stahl: Even if he’s unfit for office?
Sen. Mitch McConnell: (Overtalk) I’m—I’m– I’m a Republican. I don’t get to decide who gets to be president. The American people do. And you have to admit, they did. And he’s back.
Produced by Richard Bonin. Associate producer, Mirella Brussani. Broadcast associate, Aria Een. Edited by Matthew Lev.
