This Congress has been marked by petty disagreement, Republican and Democratic sniping, and all-around dysfunction.
But throughout all the trivial discord, partisan division, and utter chaos, the top Democrat and Republican of the Senate—Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY)—have consistently found unity.
Ukraine aid. Israel. Immigration. Military holds. Appropriations. Even small agreements on temporary funding bills. Schumer and McConnell seem to be regularly in agreement. And these aren’t small or uncontroversial topics.
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Ukraine aid particularly has bitterly divided the Republican Party, but McConnell has consistently pushed back against the MAGA rhetoric and stressed the need for action, aligning a lot more with Schumer than Donald Trump on the issue. Schumer and McConnell have also given their parties the green light to negotiate a deal on immigration, with Schumer seemingly not closed off to enacting tougher border policies, stricter asylum rules, and expedited deportation. And the two leaders are together on keeping the government open, remaining committed to top-line spending figures that have bedeviled the House.
The No. 2 for Schumer and Senate Democrats, Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), told The Daily Beast last week that the relationship between the two leaders is “better than ever.”
“I just think both of them were looking for an opportunity to agree on some things, and they found it,” Durbin said.
But the two leaders themselves aren’t necessarily trying to advertise to anyone—their party or their counterpart’s—that they’re more aligned than ever. Instead, sources from both camps pointed more to the low levels of bipartisan bonhomie that’s making Schumer and McConnell’s relationship seem closer than it is.
Part of that explanation is certainly true. As the right-wing of the Republican Party moves away from many of its traditional values—like countering Russian aggression, a strong military, and solid foreign relations—McConnell is finding himself more on the outside looking in with regard to the GOP.
That, of course, doesn’t make him less Republican. But as what it means to be a Republican changes—namely, to be aligned with Trump—McConnell isn’t exactly changing with it.
That has put the old guard Republican in a unique position, particularly as the GOP uses things like pro-Trump support and anti-Joe Biden rhetoric as a litmus test. Meanwhile, as House Republicans run toward impeaching Biden, McConnell has warned his fellow Republicans that impeachment “ought to be rare” and that it’s “not good for the country.”
Of course, McConnell also has a better working relationship with Biden than most Republicans. (Biden and McConnell overlapped in the Senate for 24 years, before they worked together on high-stakes negotiations like the fiscal cliff in 2012 when Biden was vice president and McConnell was Minority Leader.)
But another reason Schumer and McConnell seem more closely aligned than most Democratic and Republican relationships is just the nature of the Senate.
The chamber’s 60-vote threshold requires bipartisan cooperation in a narrowly divided Senate if leaders are to get anything done. So legislative accomplishments, by necessity, require working with the other side. So even as this Congress becomes the least productive in modern history, the two leaders are moving the ball forward on the Senate’s most pressing policies.
Perhaps the most obvious Schumer-McConnell synergy of late has been over the defense supplemental package. The bill includes aid to Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan and sweeping changes to immigration policy—which remain the subject of intense bipartisan Senate negotiations.
“The whole discussion over the defense supplemental has really opened up more communication,” Durbin said. “Plus, the fact that you have some bipartisan groups—like on the border policy—that are working together. So I think that makes it easier for them to talk.”
Last month, Schumer and McConnell released a rare joint statement illustrating their shared commitment to advancing the defense package.
“The Senate will not let these national security challenges go unanswered,” the statement said.
Senators from both parties told The Daily Beast they have noticed boosted communications and meetings between the two leaders in recent months, crediting their shared commitment to Ukraine.
“It looks better, and I feel good about it when I see them two working and talking,” Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) said of the leaders’ working relationship.
While making it clear she wasn’t privy to their dynamics, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) agreed that Schumer and McConnell seemed to be getting along. “It appears as though they’re much more engaged with one another recently,” she said, citing Ukraine aid as a chief area of agreement.
A growing “America First” faction of the GOP has criticized Ukraine aid as a misappropriation of resources better spent domestically. But McConnell has been steadfast in his support, bemoaning the “fickleness of Western support for Ukraine” in a speech just last week.
Schumer, too, has faced some headwinds from Democrats on the defense supplemental bill. Some Democrats are seeking conditions on U.S. aid to Israel, which Schumer has largely rejected. That’s also where McConnell seems to be. Meanwhile, Schumer has endured other criticism from his party for how leadership has negotiated with Republicans on new immigration restrictions.
Those developments certainly seem significant, particularly as the House GOP appears ungovernable and unwilling to compromise.
“When the House is really struggling—as they are now—everybody expects the Senate to be the one that comes together and kind of carries the weight, if you will,” Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) told The Daily Beast last week. “And so in order to do that, [McConnell’s] got to figure out how he gets along with Schumer and vice versa.”
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), left, and Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer, (D-NY), attend a Menorah lighting to celebrate the eight-day festival of Hanukkah.
Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty ImagesSchumer and McConnell agreed to a topline spending deal negotiated between McCarthy and Biden last year. And both have stood by that funding arrangement, even as it seemed this week that House GOP leadership might renege. Although Republicans have criticized Schumer for not moving faster to pass appropriations bills, the two leaders currently appear to be on the same page about a stop-gap plan to avoid a shutdown.
But not every senator is so happy that Schumer and McConnell are working together so closely.
“They’re all a part of the uniparty mortgaging our kids’ future,” conservative Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) told The Daily Beast.
Despite the current alignment, Schumer and McConnell aren’t exactly going out on a limb to back each other up. The policies they agree on are the types that could actually get 60 votes in the Senate and a majority in the House. It’s just that, in this Congress, with the state of bipartisan relations what they are, even those widely accepted policies are mired in partisan gridlock.
In recent years, Schumer and McConnell have voted together on a number of key pieces of legislation. During the COVID-19 pandemic, leadership collaborated to advance a $2 trillion relief package that passed 96-0. In 2021, the two swerved a debt default and passed the $1 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act with the support of 19 Republicans. With Schumer as Majority Leader, McConnell also signed on to a gun safety bill and legislation boosting domestic semiconductor manufacturing.
“I’m always pushing to get things done to help the American people. On many things, Leader McConnell and I disagree vehemently. When our interests align we have always worked together effectively,” Schumer said in a statement to The Daily Beast.
McConnell’s office chose not to comment on the leaders’ working relationship.
But it is true that, at plenty of points, Schumer and McConnell have been at each other’s throats. Schumer has openly recruited a Democrat to run against McConnell in Kentucky and voted against McConnell’s wife, Elaine Chao, to be Transportation Secretary under Trump. In 2018, Politico reported the relationship also hit “rock bottom” over a year of “slights and one-upmanship.”
On the issues, the two disagree far more frequently than they see eye-to-eye. Abortion and voting rights debates have led to testy periods in the Senate, as did the battle over the legislative filibuster, which McConnell has fought to keep.
Supreme Court confirmations have also been especially toxic. The two leaders bitterly fought over the process and the nominees themselves. And just this July, McConnell took aim at Schumer in a Washington Post op-ed for “escalating attacks” on the Supreme Court.
Several senators chalked Schumer and McConnell’s ever-evolving dynamic to the natural ebb and flow of politics. These days, the top political issues of sending foreign aid to allies and keeping the government open have lent itself to Schumer and McConnell’s goals overlapping.
“The strange thing about this place is one day you can be allies on something where your interests intersect or overlap, and the next day you’re fighting like cats and dogs over things you disagree with,” said former Republican Whip Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX). “That’s just sort of the nature of the job.”
Former Schumer senior staffer Jim Kessler—who is now the executive vice president for policy at liberal think tank Third Way—pointed to the two leaders’ respect for the Senate as a critical foundation of the relationship.
“On the big thing, the biggest thing, Schumer and McConnell are simpatico and that is they are believers in democracy. And they care about the institutions. They care about the institution of the Senate,” Kessler told The Daily Beast.
The two men’s different leadership styles have been well-documented. Schumer is known for his press-hungry strategy, using the media to whip up support for his priorities. McConnell has a reputation as more of a laconic operator—a person who’s willing to adopt the politically unpopular stance for the good of the GOP, like unleashing corporate cash in elections, shrugging whenever the media calls him out.
“I think Chuck’s blood pressure is probably permanently about 180/140. He’s pretty active. I think McConnell’s is probably 70/30,” Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) told The Daily Beast.
That personality difference has meant the two aren’t exactly BFFs, but they have found a way to communicate via meetings and conversations on the Senate floor.
“I don’t think they’re best buddies,” Cornyn told The Daily Beast. “I don’t think they hang out together.”
But, Cornyn continued, “They’re both professionals or they wouldn’t be where they are.”
Schumer and McConnell’s recent civility toward each other has been noted in the media. McConnell commended Schumer’s November speech on rising antisemitism as “extraordinary.” Schumer also welcomed McConnell back to the Senate after the minority leader froze up on camera twice.
However, as McConnell finds himself in the position of fending off criticism from the right, and Schumer finds himself unaligned with progressives increasingly disgusted by the Democratic Party’s pro-Israel policies, it’s easy to see why neither would like the media recording all the ways in which they’re aligned—even if senators themselves suggest both parties have benefitted from a closer relationship as they work toward legislative progress.
“The tone that’s set by the majority leader and the minority leader, it’s important,” said Kennedy, who isn’t known for his warm words toward Democrats even though he was a Democrat himself until 2007.
Senators like Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), also not known for her GOP praise, agreed that senators had picked up on Schumer and McConnell’s bipartisan tone. And she said it fostered a sense of trust toward Republican leadership.
“If Chuck says that Mitch really wants to get something done, we can take that to the bank,” Warren told The Daily Beast. “That’s what I’ve seen—a growing trust that, if the Republican leader commits, then the Democratic leader is pretty sure we can get a good deal.”
