Senator Mitch McConnell Announces Retirement

Today’s show was jam-packed with a variety of news items. Most notably, former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (KY) announced that he will not seek reelection in 2026.

On the Senate floor, McConnell stated:

Today, however, it’s appropriate for me to speak about an even deeper allegiance and an even longer-standing gratitude. Seven times, my fellow Kentuckians have sent me to the Senate. Every day in between I’ve been humbled by the trust they’ve placed in me to do their business here. Representing our Commonwealth has been the honor of a lifetime.

I will not seek this honor an eighth time. My current term in the Senate will be my last.

Senator McConnell has been serving in his position since before I was born. Today is his 83rd birthday, and he would have been 90 by the end of another term.

We will keep an eye on candidates to replace the long-tenured congressman. Remember that Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear is a Democrat, so there is no guarantee that a Republican would win McConnell’s vacant seat.

McConnell’s announcement preceded the news that the Senate voted 51-49 to confirm Kash Patel as the new FBI Director. We are thrilled that Patel will assume the mantle of purging the FBI of Deep State actors who undermine our national security. Surprisingly, McConnell voted in favor of Patel, unlike when he opposed Tulsi Gabbard and RFK Jr.

But to be fair to McConnell – who has certainly taken more moderate stances in recent years – he has supported many conservative measures to defend religious liberty. He also helped block AG Merrick Garland’s U.S. Supreme Court Justice confirmation, and later admitted that his decision “was the most consequential thing I’ve ever done.” Seeing how disastrous AG Garland’s DOJ was, we applaud McConnell’s 2016 decision.

We have another round of layoffs in Washington, D.C. This time, it’s at the IRS, which plans to terminate approximately 6,000 positions. ACLJ Senior Counsel and Director of Policy Harry Hutchison reacted to the Trump Administration’s role in the layoffs:

One, I would say the Trump Administration is moving swiftly in the right direction. Most Americans would love to see the termination of the IRS, in part, because the IRS has basically employed a large number of individuals who’ve engaged in arbitrary decision-making. . . . Two, It’s important to keep in mind that under the Biden Administration, the IRS was poised to grow by an additional 80,000 employees. Three, The IRS is a year-round operation, and I know some of the news reports are talking about the layoffs of IRS employees during the tax season. However, most of the employees who will be terminated work for the small business division of the IRS, and small-business people pay their taxes, generally, on a quarterly basis, so they’re paying taxes year-round. So, any quarter is a tax season for small businesses. So I think at the end of the day, the movement away from the IRS is a welcome development.

Since Elon Musk and Donald Trump are willing to make drastic changes to the IRS, maybe we will move to something like a flat tax. All my life, I’ve heard we’re going to simplify paying taxes – like being able to do them on a single sheet of paper. People won’t have to hire a whole team of tax experts to make sure they’re in compliance.

Also, the ALCJ has a free speech case involving a high school student. We sent a legal demand letter to a high school in Georgia where a history teacher spends at least 25 minutes each class period promoting her far-Left political views instead of teaching the required curriculum. This isn’t a spontaneous development; she had previously indicated to students that she would expand her political commentary after the election, stating she “is not going to vote for the orange man.”

Students are free to agree with the teacher, but when our client responds with her conservative views, the teacher interrupts her. In doing so, the teacher has created an intimidating environment that suppresses conservative student expression – a clear violation of fundamental First Amendment protections that strikes at the heart of academic freedom.

Because the school district has failed to respond, the ACLJ is set to file a lawsuit in federal court to stop the viewpoint discrimination against our client. We will keep you updated.

Today’s Sekulow broadcast included a full analysis of Senator Mitch McConnell’s retirement. We also talked about our free speech case in Georgia.

Watch the full broadcast below: