Mitch McConnell Hatches Plan To Leave Office But Save His Seat

Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell is already devising a plan that could either let him walk away before his term ends, or act as an insurance policy in the event he doesn't make it to the end of his term. He is working with the state legislature in Kentucky to pass a law that would let Republicans - not the Kentucky governor - choose his replacement if he can't finish his term. Farron Cousins explains what's happening.

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*This transcript was auto-generated. Please excuse any typos.

Republican Senator Mitch McConnell just won reelection back in November. And the guy is 79 years old. And he's about to have to finish a six year term, meaning that by the next time he's either up for reelection or decides to leave after his term, he's going to be 85 years old and he isn't quite so sure that he's going to make it, uh, either, you know, natural causes or maybe just him getting too exhausted and unable to do the job. So Mitch McConnell right now is working on an insurance policy and it's a two pronged insurance policy. The first prong is that he is devising a list of individuals who he believes would make suitable replacements for him in the United States Senate people that would carry on the horrible legacy of Mitch McConnell. The second prong of it is that he is actually working, uh, maybe a little strong, uh, I guess you would say advising Republicans, the Republicans who control the, uh, Kentucky state legislature on legislation that they're working on that would take away the ability of the Kentucky governor, who is a Democrat, uh, to appoint a replacement, should Mitch McConnell not make it to the end of his term.

And instead, this legislation would allow the party of the individual who doesn't make it to the end of their term. They would convene a panel, made up only of members of their party, who would choose from the list that Mitch McConnell or whoever it would be makes of their suitable replacements. So Mitch McConnell would be the one essentially making the choice. The Republicans would just choose between his chair, voices, this, this whole thing. Uh, honestly, if you're in Kentucky though, by the way, like this whole thing should you off because they're literally taking away your voice. I mean, even when we're talking about a governor appointing a replacement for, you know, a retiring or a deceased Senator, even that's a little ridiculous, isn't it? I mean, why is it so difficult to just hold a special election? Like, okay, this person's gone, we got to vote on somebody else.

Cause that's how this works. These people are supposed to be elected. Let's do it. I don't care if there's one month left in the term. I don't care. There's 20 months. In fact, I think, I think it should be a rule if there's only six months or less left in the term that seat goes unfilled until the next election. That's how it should be. But instead Mitch McConnell is so desperate to keep Republicans in power in the Senate, that he is actively trying to circumvent the laws that are currently on the books and the law on the books now says, if something happens to Mitch McConnell or that other Republican Senator from Kentucky Rand Paul, the democratic governor gets to pick that's law and Republicans want to change that because they pretty much understand that a, a democratic governor and exactly going to pick a Republican, right, Mitch McConnell, if he didn't think he was going to make it to the end of his term, or if he's already, you know, two months into the new term talking about Holy crap, I'm not going to be able to do this.

Yeah. Maybe, maybe we need to have some kind of limit, you know, maybe an upper limit for age. We have a threshold for age. You can't run for the house. If you're not a, I forget it. It's it's it's high twenties Senate, I think is 30. President is 35. Cause we don't think people under those ages have the mental capacity and the maturity to do these jobs. But we also know it's scientific fact, this isn't an insult, but as you get older, especially up into Mitch McConnell's age, late seventies, eighties, even in the nineties, mental capacity declines. So if people can be too young to run for office, maybe it's only fair that we put an upper limit on that as well. And maybe that would get rid of some of the McConnells and some of the other horrible people who have been holding this country back for decades now. But what Mitch McConnell is trying to do here is absolutely one of the more dastardly things that this man has attempted. And of course would absolutely be a fitting legacy for Mitch McConnell.