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Mitch McConnell’s Unburdened Era has begun.
The Kentucky Republican, who stepped down from his role as longest-serving party leader in history this month, has been signaling that he would be neither a party hack nor a yes-man for President Donald Trump’s agenda. And on Friday night, that signal became a siren through his vote against Pete Hegseth’s nomination to lead the Pentagon, forcing Vice President J.D. Vance to make history by casting just the second Cabinet nominee’s tie-breaker. (The other, of course, was Mike Pence to get Betsy DeVos across the line as Education Secretary.)
A single Republican Senator voting against a Trump nominee who still got confirmed may not seem like such a big deal. But McConnell is not just any Senator, and he does not usually find himself on the losing side of a…
