--- title: Republican Convention: Watch Mitch McConnell Speak description: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell argued that Donald Trump would sign Republican priorities into law as president. canonical: https://time.com/4414142/republican-convention-mitch-mcconnell-speech-transcript-video/ author: Julissa Higgins article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-07-20T04:06:40.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T23:22:57.952Z article:section: Politics og:title: Watch Mitch McConnell Speak at the Republican Convention og:description: He argued Donald Trump would sign GOP priorities into law. og:url: https://time.com/4414142/republican-convention-mitch-mcconnell-speech-transcript-video/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt848588f9797e7284/69889ca6a988ca04c66b8aef/mitch-mcconnell.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) delivers a speech on the second day of the Republican National Convention on July 19, 2016 at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Watch Mitch McConnell Speak at the Republican Convention twitter:description: He argued Donald Trump would sign GOP priorities into law. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt848588f9797e7284/69889ca6a988ca04c66b8aef/mitch-mcconnell.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Watch Mitch McConnell Speak at the Republican Convention by [Julissa Higgins](https://time.com/author/julissa-higgins/) ## Julissa Higgins Jul 20, 2016 4:06 AM UTC  Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) delivers a speech on the second day of the Republican National Convention on July 19, 2016 at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) delivers a speech on the second day of the Republican National Convention on July 19, 2016 at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio.Alex Wong—Getty Images by [Julissa Higgins](https://time.com/author/julissa-higgins/) ## Julissa Higgins Jul 20, 2016 4:06 AM UTC Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell argued at the Republican convention Tuesday night that Donald Trump would sign Republican priorities into law as president. The Kentucky Republican noted that he and a “freshman class of rock-star Republicans” have passed legislation repealing Obamacare, approving the Keystone Pipeline and defunding Planned Parenthood that President Obama vetoed. But he said that a President Trump would sign those bills into law while also filling a Supreme Court seat that McConnell vowed to leave open until next year. “Keep the Senate in Republican hands and we’ll continue this work and the remarkable public servants that I’m proud to lead in the Senate will not let you down,” he said. “But, put Hillary Clinton in the White House and I promise you this, she will double down on the cynical approach that Senate Democrats seem to revel in these days.” Read McConnell’s remarks, as delivered: --- > “” --- ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4414142/republican-convention-mitch-mcconnell-speech-transcript-video/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4414142/republican-convention-mitch-mcconnell-speech-transcript-video/"},"headline":"Watch Mitch McConnell Speak at the Republican Convention","datePublished":"2016-07-20T04:06:40.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T23:22:57.952Z","description":"Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell argued that Donald Trump would sign Republican priorities into law as president.","url":"https://time.com/4414142/republican-convention-mitch-mcconnell-speech-transcript-video/","keywords":["Republican National Convention","2016 Election topic","Congress","Mitch McConnell","Donald Trump","transcripts"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt848588f9797e7284/69889ca6a988ca04c66b8aef/mitch-mcconnell.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Julissa Higgins","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/julissa-higgins/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt848588f9797e7284/69889ca6a988ca04c66b8aef/mitch-mcconnell.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) delivers a speech on the second day of the Republican National Convention on July 19, 2016 at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio.","caption":"Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) delivers a speech on the second day of the Republican National Convention on July 19, 2016 at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio.","creditText":"Alex Wong—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/republican-national-convention/","name":"Republican National Convention"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4414142/republican-convention-mitch-mcconnell-speech-transcript-video/","name":"Watch Mitch McConnell Speak at the Republican Convention"}}]}] ```