McConnell was hardly alone among Senate Republicans in raising doubts about Gabbard, Kennedy and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, whose confirmation he opposed last month. Several colleagues who hail from the same traditionalist wing of the GOP aired similar concerns about those nominees’ fitness for office.

When McConnell decided to oppose conviction, Trump was facing a bevy of trials, civil and criminal. The senator probably figured that the ex-president’s political career was over. He figured wrong.

Mitch McConnell is pushing back against President Trump’s most controversial nominees, becoming an unlikely — and sometimes lonely — face of Republican resistance.