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.

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

It seemed hard to imagine Donald Trump's relationship with Mitch McConnell getting much worse. Then the president questioned whether the senator had polio.