McConnell has prioritized changing the federal judiciary.
The Kentucky Republican lawmaker has worked for years with Republican presidents to install conservative jurists and to deny Democratic presidents the ability to counter with picks of their own, which he did in 2016 in blocking now-Attorney General Merrick Garland's nomination to replace Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court.
According to a recent report from The Washington Post, he became even more involved in the high court selection process during Donald Trump's White House tenure.
The report explained how abortion became politicized and how the GOP spent decades seeking to embolden the anti-abortion space.
Leonard Leo, the executive vice president of the conservative Federalist Society, sent a list of potential court picks to Trump after he was asked to fill the seat of Antonin Scalia on the bench.
According to The Post, Neil Gorsuch was on that list.
According to the report, Trump was given a second list of names in the summer of 2017, which included the names of two of his nominees to the high court.
The Supreme Court was filled with conservative justices by McConnell and Leo. McConnell quickly moved the efforts through the Senate.
McConnell asked Trump for praise on his role in the process, according to the report.
An advisor to McConnell told the newspaper that part of McConnell's goal was to make sure that Trump was getting the praise he needed to keep doing what he was doing.
There was no shortage of effort to raise the profile of the judges issue so that Trump would continue to have interest in it. He would say, "Mitch McConnell, every time I saw Trump privately." Judges. Judges. Judges. He only wants judges.
Trump would often ask his advisors if he was setting records for judicial nominees. The federal court system was turned into a conservative powerhouse by Trump. The GOP-controlled Senate filled dozens of vacancies during the last two years of President Barack Obama's tenure, while also appointing justices Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Barrett to the Supreme Court.
According to The Post, Trump paid attention to the candidates on the lists given to him.
McConnell wanted to praise the success of the conservative judicial nominees.
While speaking on the "Ruthless" podcast last week, Republican Rep. Andy Barr of Kentucky recalled an instance where Trump sang the praises of Gorsuch while on Air Force One.
He went on for a good while with his monologue about how this was the greatest choice ever to the United States Supreme Court, according to Barr. leader McConnell didn't miss a beat when there was a pause. He leaned forward and asked the President when he would be thanked.
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