Now. Good day, im Chris Jansing live at msnbc headquarters in new york city, and we start with that Breaking News, a Major Political stunner. Mitch mcconnell choking up on the senate floor as he announces he is leaving the job that hes done for longer than any other senator in american history. That experience he has and his masterful gift as a political tactician gone from the gop when he steps down as Senate Leader in november. So what does that mean for the party and for congresss ability to get anything done . Also breaking, white powder found in an envelope sent to judge Arthur Engoron. Hes the one who hit donald trump with nearly a half A Billion Dollars judgment, and it comes on the same day were learning about the former president s newest attempt to get out of having to pay. And hes the witness that republicans had been trying to land for months in their Impeachment Inquiry, but hunter biden came to capitol hill armed with a blistering Opening Statement saying hes been hunted by republicans for a political House Of Cards built on lies, the high drama and contentious exchanges continuing right now Behind Closed Doors with questions coming Fast And Furious about the biden family and hunters business. So much to get to. Major Breaking News, Mitch Mcconnell walking out onto the senate floor and giving that huge announcement, he will step down as Republican Leader in november. Nbcs Garrett Haake is reporting on capitol hill. Also with us, matthew dowd, senior msnbc political analyst, and michael schmidt, New York Times washington correspondent and Msnbc National Security contributor, who is here with me on set. Okay, garrett, i didnt hear any leaks. I dont know if there were leaks out there, but what happened here . What do we know . Reporter well, look, Mitch Mcconnell is going to leave office at the end of this term, now, he says in 2026 as the most controversial and consequential senator probably of the last 50 years, probably since Lyndon Baines johnson. Part of how he has gotten there is very tight control of his message. There are no leaks from Mitch Mcconnells office. Theres nothing that appears by accident, the way we all learned about this today was an interview that he had done that was released on embargo just moments before mcconnell took to the floor to make the announcement himself. Now i think it was surprising in the moment that mcconnell chose today of all days, a wednesday at 12 30 to announce hed be leaving his leadership post this year, the senate at the end of his term, but not surprising in the general sense. He is as he pointed out, 82 years old as. As he said, father time is undefeated. He knew that he would be making decisions about his future sooner rather than later. Obviously hes had some Health Challenges over the last couple of years, that concussion last year that knocked him out of the senate for several weeks, the freezing episodes upon his return. Just within the last few weeks, his sisterinlaw died in an accident in texas that i think influenced his thinking a little bit about timing and legacy. Hes also looking at the future of the Republican Party, which will continue to be dominated by donald trump, to whom he has not spoken since late 2020. So we will surely learn more about his decisionmaking process in the hours and days to come, but i think all of those factors came into play here for a leader whos trying to end his incredible control over this body, which he has served in for longer than i have been alive on his own terms, and with a few pieces of Unfinished Business remaining, particularly towards the end of this congress, im thinking primarily of that ukraine aid, which he has been so focused on over the last couple of months, which still needs to get to the president s desk. Talk more, if you will, about your analysis of what he chose to say and maybe what he didnt say. Well, he talked a lot about the party and the body of the senate that he came into in the mid80s and the idea of kind of a Reaganite View Of The World and of america that he has tried to uphold. He talked about his view of the senate. This is a guy whose book is called the long game. When so many of his colleagues past and present came into this office, looked in the mirror and saw themselves as president , not as a senator. That was never a goal of his, and it showed in the way that he controlled this body, even from his current job as minority leader, the senate affords you that ability. He did not talk about donald trump, although he did allude to the fact that he understands as well as anyone the politics within his own party. Remember, as i said, theyve not spoken since 2020. Mcconnell was reported to have considered voting for a conviction of donald trump in the second impeachment trial, the one related to january 6th, but ultimately voted to acquit and then blistered the former president on the floor. Their relationship has never recovered, and even as other senators including his current number two john thune, who is equally perhaps trump skeptical, have come back into the fold and endorsed the former president as he seeks the office for a second time. Mitch mcconnell never has. Hes engaged in conversations or his aides have engaged in conversations about that possibility, but i think its also entirely reasonable to assume that he who understands the politics of the moment so well in this country looked around and saw a future Republican Party perhaps in the majority again in washington, perhaps not as not necessarily something he wanted to dive into with both feet as an 82yearold. The way he put it, i have many faults, misunderstanding politics is not one of them. No one would accuse him of that. So what do you make of this decision now in this moment, matthew . Well, to me its he understands now he no longer fits the Republican Party of america today. Its such a contrast, and hes such an evidence of where the Republican Party was when he first got elected in 1984 and who they were and what they stood for and where they are today and on many, many, as you know, many, many, many issues, theyre completely the opposite of what the party was in 1984 when he was elected and what it is today. And so i think its probably an acknowledgment in his own heart and mind that this party no longer exists. He obviously has other personal reasons, Health Reasons and all those other things, but i think he was the last of the sort of republicans in leadership that wasnt dragged around by the maga base, that wasnt told what to do every day and how to do it by the base of the Republican Party that donald trump seems to own. He was the last of them. There is no one else left in leadership in any Leadership Position that is willing to put their hand up and tell the maga base no or stop or im not going to do that, which is why today this is interesting why today, Mitch Mcconnells numbers among republicans, hes the most unpopular republican among republicans, Elected Official. Think about that. Hes the most unpopular republican Elected Official among republicans today. And so while he has a majority of republicans who dislike him, donald trump has 80 , 90 of republicans who love him, that in the end i think comes down to he was probably just tired of holding his hand up and trying to stop the maga from dragging the senate where it wanted to go. You know, matthew, if we accept the premise that there is nobody out there just waiting to jump in who can do the kind of things that Mitch Mcconnell has done for all these years and garrett mentioned the fact that hes probably the most powerful leader since lbj, i think back to robert carrows great book, master of the senate, which is a treatise on how to use legislative power. Is the only option the exact opposite of the reagan era, of the shining city on the hill, of an lbj . Is it only acquiescence . What does this really mean . Well, thats, i think, why this election in november is so important, and who holds the senate and then who becomes the minority or Majority Leader of the Republican Party that. Is going to be a dragout fight that weve never seen before within that caucus. And i think its going to be a fight between the people that respect the institutions of the senate who want to sort of represent what reaganism was or the old conservative Republican Party and all those senators like josh hawley, ted cruz, and so many others who are fully willing to give acquiescence to the maga wing of the party and go wherever they want to go, even if that means proputin and all the things they want to do in the course of this. That election in november is going to be one of the most telling signs of whether or not we have an institution that has sent The Republicans respect, or theyve decided to do what they did in the house, which is throw out all norms and behave in a manner that we no longer have seen in the United States senate. The United States senate was the adult in the room largely because of Mitch Mcconnell holding The Republicans. Will it become the child in the room like the House Republicans have become . Well, that is the question, in the longterm certainly, michael, but also in the shortterm. Im wondering, theyre everything from what kind of influence you wield with incredibly important negotiations coming up, for example, does government keep functioning. All the way to the talk about this behind the scenes conversations about would Mitch Mcconnell endorse donald trump . Does all of that become irrelevant now . Whats like the shortterm impact that youre seeing here . Im not sure. I mean, as matthew was laying out, i dont know what a Mitch Mcconnell endorsement of donald trump really means in the current party, especially if hes that unpopular. Im not sure that the base is really looking for Mitch Mcconnell. Now, maybe that signals something to donors and it means something to the Republican Party establishment, whatever it is. So i dont know but when you talk about Mitch Mcconnell as we are today, i think we have to think in the larger terms of his legacy and what he really means to the courts. His impact on the federal courts will be something we will be living in Mitch Mcconnells view of the courts for decades to come. Yes, he is stepping down, you know, from his position announcing that today, but going all the way back to refusing to confirm merrick garland, and then the Conveyor Belt that he was able to build from the Trump White House to his senate committees, they were able to confirm judges, not only on the Supreme Court but at the lower courts is something that i didnt i think that some members of the Republican Party never thought was so accomplishable in the way that they did it. So i want to play a little bit more of what he had to say today. First of all, just really talking about whether or not it was time for him to go, whether that was the decision he ultimately had to make. Lets play that. One of lifes most under appreciated talents is to know when its time to move on to lifes next chapter. So i stand before you today, mr. President and my colleagues, to say this will be my last term as Republican Leader of the senate. Im not going anywhere anytime soon. However, ill complete my job, my colleagues have given me until we select a new leader in november and they take the helm next january. Ill finish the job the people of kentucky hired me to do as well. Albeit from a different seat, and im actually looking forward to that. So let me go back to you, Garrett Haake. Tell me what your view is of the shortterm now and what we just heard, frankly, from Mitch Mcconnell. Obviously a very emotional day for him. Reporter yeah, im sure it is. I mean heres been in this body almost half of his life, like i said, longer than ive been alive, hes been a United States senator. We have seen it time and time again over the last several years really, over the history of the senate how difficult it is for lawmakers to understand when it is time to step away from this chamber. Its particularly hard for members in leadership. Mitch mcconnell probably hasnt driven a car in decades, all right . These are people with security details. They get flown around the country. Theyre absolutely critical to the political infrastructure of the party they support, and basically are treated as such every single day and to step back from that, even to become just a regular rank and file member of your own party again is a big step. As i mentioned earlier, he also recently suffered a loss in his family, which is the kind of thing that gets anybody thinking about their own mortality and about their own future. I want to just add something to the question that michael raised rhetorically, the idea of what does a Mitch Mcconnell endorsement give donald trump . It gives him a trophy. It gives him proof of the complete dominance that he has over the Republican Party, if he were able to essentially subjugate the last remaining elected Leader Anywhere who has opposed him, who has been mocked by trump, whose wife has beenhs not years. Im thinking about the dates going back in time here. To have someone like mcconnell after all of that history then turn around and endorse donald trump is kind of to me the one final signal, if anybody needs any more, that the Republican Party in 2024 is Donald Trumps. I want to bring in jonathan cot, former Senior Adviser to senator joe manchin. He was in the Senate Building when mcconnell made his announcement. Jonathan, tell me what that was like, what was the reaction you heard and whats your Immediate Reaction to this announcement . Iphones and text alerts were going off like crazy and, you know, everybody was shocked by it. I think Mitch Mcconnell is part of the institution of the senate. Hes been there like garrett said almost half his life, and he loves the senate. I would point out i disagree with almost everything Mitch Mcconnell has done in the senate, but he has had a Lasting Impact on not just the senate, but the country. So i think it is right now people are just looking at what this means for the Republican Party in congress. There was always this belief that donald trump was crazy and he was running the maga wing of the party and the House Of Representatives kind of went along with him, and now theyre just dug whatever he tells them, but Mitch Mcconnell was sort of the dam that, you know, held them back in the senate and wouldnt allow some of the maga insanity to come over there. I think he probably just got tired of that fight and i think the fight over ukraine aid and israel aid and taiwan aid tired him oout where he didnt want to keep doing this anymore. He was smart. Most members cannot leave. They always serve one term too many. They always stick around a few more years past their prime. I think mcconnell is stepping aside at the right time. You can disagree with everything you want with him, but he has had some Lasting Impact on our economy, our judicial system, our Campaign Finance laws. He has taken arrows for the Republican Party for the last 20 or 30 years, and hes going to be hes going to be missed in that caucus as the leader and the person who understands how it works. And there is going to be, jonathan, a lot of dissection of what this means for the Republican Party, but you work for multiple democrats, not just joe manchin, but chris coons as well. What does it mean necessarily for the Democratic Party . Was he even though folks on the left may have had a completely different view of policy than he did, someone they knew was an institu