McConnell Stepping Down Removes ‘Last Bulwark’ of Traditional Republicans From Congress, Says Conservative Strategist

MSNBC political analyst Brendan Buck is predicting a future Senate that looks a lot more like the House GOP following Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) announcing he’s stepping down as Senate leader.

McConnell, 82, announced on Wednesday on the Senate floor that this will be his final term in the Senate. He joined in 1985.

Buck, a conservative strategist who worked with Paul Ryan and John Boehner, called McConnell “relatively unpopular” as leader — noting him breaking with many Republicans on aid for Ukraine — but he remained mostly unchallenged because he had the “respect of the conference.”

Buck said:

This is a person who, let’s be honest, was relatively unpopular most of the time that he was leader and yet he was never challenged really, maybe a little bit recently, but he was almost unchallenged the entire time he was leader because his colleagues knew that he was going to be that laser-focused leader on the issues he cared about and they cared about and was willing to take whatever slings and arrows that came. He was very unpopular obviously on the left but somewhat unpopular on the right as well.

Buck predicted a Senate that functions much more like the House now that McConnell will no longer be in charge. The Kentucky senator clashed with then-President Donald Trump after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot and he’s stood on the opposite end of issues like Ukraine as House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), a more consistent supporter of the former president.

“It is becoming much more like the House, candidly,” Buck said of the Senate.

He predicted a future where members are much more concerned with what Trump is saying on a particular issue.

“Mitch McConnell seemed like the last bulwark in the Congress of traditional Republican principles and ideas,” Buck said.

Watch above via MSNBC.