Hi dear listeners, this is Kate Riga. I'm here to make a quick pitch that you consider becoming a TPM Prime member.

TPM has used the member model for over a decade now and our loyal members are the only reason we've been able to weather the turbulence of the media landscape

and avoid the fate that has befallen so many other independent outlets.

For $70, you get no paywall, fewer ads, access to the Hive Member Forum, a Members Only newsletter, and more.

For $140 a year, you get all of that, plus no ads at all.

Without our members, there is no podcast, not to mention that I'm out of a job.

Thank you so much for listening and supporting us.

We couldn't do it without you. Oh, Hi, this is Josh Marshall, and this is the Josh Marshall podcast with Kate Riga.

We have a few topics that we're going to talk about today,

but we had some pretty big news, break, I don't know,

an hour, hour and a half ago. We are recording a little before 3 p.m. on

Wednesday, February the 28th and the news was that Mitch McConnell is going to step down from the Republican Senate leadership,

stepped down from being the leader, currently the minority leader of the

Republican Senate caucus.

And I think that is, it's not shocking news.

I think everybody kind of realized that was probably on the horizon.

In likelihood that this would probably be his last Congress as leader.

He's obviously relatively old and he's had those some health incidents that we've

never quite understood what they were.

But he has, I think it's fair to say he has physically declined in a fairly marked way in the

last year, 18 months or so.

And when I say that, I just mean, you know,

...