Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell announced a week ago he'll be stepping down from his leadership position in November of this year he's the longest serving leader in the history of the state senate our political reporter Justin gick is here with more Justin em line McConnell has served in Senate leadership since 2007 and in the Senate since 1985 with this announcement there are many questions being posed as to why he decided to do this now and what this means for the Senate moving forward
Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell's announcement that he will be stepping down from his leadership role caught many people by surprise there was no warning and McConnell gave no reason for doing this political analyst Dr Mark Springer says this is difficult to understand maybe he's also seeing the writing on the wall or maybe there's again personal circumstances that we don't know about that you know he's just decided it's the time many have wondered whether this was the right time for McCo
nnell to step down Senator Kevin Kramer says he believes it was Mitch knows best what's best for Mitch I think he he like I said he read the room well and I think part of reading the room is the timing part of doing things on your own terms is the timing he surprised Everybody by doing it this early I I think it was genius Capitol Hall has been seeing many people step down from roles or even retire in both Chambers the past few months with McConnell now added to the mix it poses the question of
whether this was a signal it's time for the younger generation to become involved in leadership analysts say that's part of these decisions however there's more to it now politics wears on you and especially nowadays and so I think a lot of people are seeing that kind of um mental grind that happens with being in that political Arena and especially with the uh with Congress things not getting done as it used to and so I think some of them are starting to see that you know this is no longer somet
hing that's enjoyable the big question is who is on tap to Phil McConnell's position when he does finally step down Kramer says things are already starting to shake up a bit two people who have already said they're running and have already started asking members for their votes that would be John th of South Dakota of course and John cornin of Texas the interesting thing about those two John's is they're similar people they're they're similar in experience as far as what's next for Mitch McConne
ll analysts say it's hard to see where he goes from here I I don't know where you go you know as 82 um you know what you do after that I mean maybe he writes his Memoirs with eight months to go until stepping down McConnell looks to be charging full steam ahead to get things accomplished as well as tackl issues concerning the country Senator Kramer says McConnell said he is committed to staying in the Senate through his term which is not up for another two years emiline thanks so much jus
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