Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell announced he will step down as the Senate’s Republican leader in November in a move that is expected to strengthen Donald Trump’s control of the Republican Party. The 82-year-old McConnell has served 17 years as Republican leader, the longest term in Senate history.

Sen. Mitch McConnell: “Believe me, I know the politics within my party at this particular moment in time. I have many faults. Misunderstanding politics is not one of them.”

McConnell said he plans to finish his term as senator. During his leadership, Mitch McConnell successfully blocked voting on Democratic bills, from gun control to election integrity, while ramming through Republican priorities, including Trump’s $2 trillion tax cuts for corporations and the wealthiest Americans. Mitch McConnell helped Trump stack federal courts with far-right judges. He also reversed the 60-vote threshold for confirming Supreme Court justices, allowing Trump to install three right-wing ideologues on the bench, a few years after stonewalling President Obama’s Supreme Court justice pick. Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich said of McConnell, “Few people have done more to undermine our democratic institutions and the rule of law than Mitch McConnell.”