Addison Mitchell McConnell III[1] (/məˈkɒnəl/; born February 20, 1942) is an American politician and retired attorney serving as the senior United States senator from Kentucky, a seat he has held since 1985.

McConnell invoked the nuclear option to eliminate the 60-vote requirement to end a filibuster for Supreme Court nominations, after his predecessor Harry Reid had eliminated the filibuster for all other presidential nominations; Trump subsequently won Supreme Court confirmation battles over Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett.

[10][13] He and his mother were living with an aunt in Five Points, Alabama, at the time, and he received treatment at the Roosevelt Warm Springs Institute for Rehabilitation.

[19][24] In March 1967, shortly before the expiration of his educational draft deferment upon graduation from law school, McConnell enlisted in the U.S. Army Reserve as a private at Louisville.

[24][31][32] In October 1974, McConnell returned to Washington to fill a position as Deputy Assistant Attorney General under President Ford, where he worked alongside Robert Bork, Laurence Silberman, and Antonin Scalia.

[22][26] According to one of his biographers, McConnell transformed "from a moderate Republican who supported abortion rights and public employee unions to the embodiment of partisan obstructionism and conservative orthodoxy on Capitol Hill.

[53] According to Purdue University political scientist Bert A. Rockman, "pure party line voting has been evident now for some time ... but rarely has the tactic of 'oppositionism' been so boldly stated as McConnell did.

[55] Levinson noted, "McConnell altogether rationally ... concluded that Republicans have nothing to gain, as a political party, from collaborating in anything that the president could then claim as an achievement.

"[55] A number of political scientists, historians, and legal scholars have characterized McConnell's obstructionism and constitutional hardball as contributors to democratic erosion in the United States.

Asked whether this meant "endless, or at least frequent, confrontation with the president", McConnell said, "if [Obama is] willing to meet us halfway on some of the biggest issues, it's not inappropriate for us to do business with him.

"[61] The New York Times wrote early in Obama's administration that "on the major issues—not just health care, but financial regulation and the economic stimulus package, among others—Mr.

"[62] The Republican caucus threatened repeatedly to force the United States to default on its debt, McConnell saying he had learned from the 2011 debt-ceiling crisis that "it's a hostage that's worth ransoming".

Not only did this strategy produce an atmosphere of gridlock and dysfunction; it also chewed up the Senate calendar, restricting the range of issues on which Democrats could progress.

In response, McConnell cited Neil Gorsuch's confirmation to the Supreme Court to show that the Senate supported Trump's agenda.

[84]Later that day, he described the storming of the Capitol building (which occurred while the Electoral College votes were being counted) as a "failed insurrection" that "tried to disrupt our democracy".

[100] Once the Senate trial started, McConnell voted to acquit Trump on February 13, 2021, saying it was unconstitutional to convict a president who was no longer in office.

[105] When there was a proposal for an independent commission to investigate the January 6 United States Capitol attack, McConnell sought to organize Republican senators to filibuster it,[106] and on May 28, 2021, he voted against its creation.

[113] Throughout Obama's tenure, McConnell led Senate Republicans in what has been called "a disciplined, sustained, at times underhanded campaign to deny the Democratic president the opportunity to appoint federal judges".

[120] In 2014, Republicans gained control of the Senate, and McConnell became majority leader; he used his new power to start what was considered "a near blockade" of Obama's judicial appointments.

[64] In January 2017, President Trump nominated Neil Gorsuch to fill the Supreme Court vacancy left after Scalia's death.

In July 2018, Trump nominated Brett Kavanaugh to replace the retiring Anthony Kennedy as an associate justice of the Supreme Court.

[144] In October 2018, McConnell said if a Supreme Court vacancy were to occur in 2020, he would not repeat his 2016 decision to let the winner of the upcoming presidential election nominate a justice.

[146] On October 23, McConnell set in place the Senate debate on the confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett to fill Ginsburg's seat.

McConnell later vowed Republicans would not force the U.S. to default on its debt or shut down the government in 2014, when stopgap funding measures were set to expire.

[173] Democrats called the bill "completely inadequate" given the scope of the COVID-19 crisis[174] and a partisan maneuver to help Republican senators up for reelection.

He led opposition against Obamacare,[187] first through efforts to delay or prevent the law's passage, and later to repeal or replace it, including via the American Healthcare Reform Act.

[223] In May 2019, McConnell's brother-in-law Gordon Hartogensis, who is married to Chao's sister Grace, was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as director of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC), a part of the Labor Department.

[10] In February 2003, McConnell underwent a triple heart bypass surgery in relation to blocked arteries, at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland.

[232] On December 10, 2024, McConnell sustained a fall during a Senate Republican Conference policy luncheon, spraining his wrist and cutting his face.

[239] In 1997, McConnell founded the James Madison Center for Free Speech, a legal-defense organization based in Washington, D.C.[240][241] He was inducted into the Sons of the American Revolution on March 1, 2013.