Tag: Mitch McConnell

Calls for Justice Kavanaugh’s impeachment are mounting. Here’s how it could work.

Washington Post logoOne year ago, a bitterly divided Senate voted to confirm Supreme Court Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh to a lifetime appointment on the nation’s highest court; the vote was 50 to 48.

Now, as the Oct. 8 anniversary of his confirmation nears, the New York Times reports that it has uncovered a previously unreported claim of sexual misconduct against Kavanaugh and that it found the FBI interviewed none of the potential witnesses. The story, published Saturday evening, compelled several Democrats to demand a new investigation into the Supreme Court justice.

Even before the recent spate of sexual misconduct allegations, murmurs among Kavanaugh opponents fixated on whether he had lied under oath before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Saturday’s story from the Times quickly raised new questions about whether Kavanaugh perjured himself and reignited calls for his impeachment.<

View the complete September 16 article by Deanna Paul on The Washington Post website here.

As Trump undermines US national security, Mitch McConnell is his loyal ally

AlterNet logoIt was just one tweet in a long thread about the European Union’s attempt to salvage a coherent future with the United Kingdom and its latest unelected Conservative prime minister. BBC Europe editor Katya Adler was making the point that EU leaders don’t want the U.K. to crash out of the EU without a negotiated deal, because that would be bad for everyone, and they’d love to find a compromise that necessarily includes resolving what to do about the Irish border. Except that British Prime Minister Boris Johnson doesn’t seem interested in negotiating or in finding the most equitable solution to a self-inflicted crisis. And then Adler posted this:

katya adler

✔

 ·
Replying to @BBCkatyaadler

With no deal now considered the most likely scenario by EU, the bloc is in self-preservation, damage-limitation mode, with EU leaders wondering how they ..and the EU as a whole .. can emerge from the Brexit drama as unscathed as possible /3

katya adler

✔@BBCkatyaadler

Political leaders – like Merkel or Rutte in NL – very keen indeed that a deal be found. Aware of economic impact of no deal for them at home plus they envisage likely acrimonious EU-UK relationship emerging post no deal that they fear will serve Putin and Trump most of all BUT/4

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It was so casual, so obvious, so taken for granted that it wasn’t even cause for a moment’s reflection. That’s what Trump, Moscow Mitch McConnell, and the Republican Party have done to the United States. That’s what Trump, Moscow Mitch McConnell, and the Republican Party have done to U.S. national security. European leaders no longer consider the United States an ally. European leaders group the occupant of the Oval Office with a hostile foreign despot and desperately hope to prevent the unhinged British prime minister from serving their interests above Europe’s. And nearly two dozen Conservative Party members bucked Johnson, very possibly at the expense of their political careers, in order to protect Britain from its unhinged leader, but Moscow Mitch McConnell and the Republican Party will not do the same to protect the United States from Trump. They’re all in. Not just compliant, but fully complicit.

View the complete September 9 post by Laurence Lewis on the Daily Kos website here.

‘You are failing’: Former GOP supporter of Mitch McConnell tears into the majority leader for helping Russia

AlterNet logoWhen well-known former Republicans start goading Mitch McConnell with the moniker that clearly has him enraged, you know Moscow Mitch’s cover is blown. For years he’s been able to keep sliding under the radar, undermining the Senate, flouting the norms and traditions that kept the institution a functioning body, while the wider world paid little attention.

But that’s changed. His enthusiastic enabling of this worst, most dangerous president is one thing that’s breaking his protective shell. So is his refusal to protect the nation from enemy interference in our elections. But his disregard for human life is the last straw for a lot of people. That includes well-known former Republicans like David Weissman, who used to support McConnell, as well as Trump. In an open letter to Moscow Mitch published Wednesday in The Times of Israel, Weissman told him “if you don’t like this nickname, do your job.”

“You are failing the people that elected you to act as Senator, but instead you act as [a] Russian puppet,” Weissman wrote. “You have also blocked bipartisan bills that would protect elections in our country. This gives Russia more opportunities to interfere in our elections.” He writes to McConnell that he is “single-handedly putting our democracy at risk,” and “This is why the people are calling you Moscow Mitch.”

View the complete September 5 post by Joan McCarter from Daily Kos on the AlterNet website here.

Mitch McConnell really doesn’t like it when you call him ‘Moscow Mitch’

AlterNet logo“Moscow Mitch” is the derogatory name that MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough and other critics of President Donald Trump have used in reference to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Scarborough has repeatedly argued that by blocking election security bills, McConnell is, in effect, helping the Russian government interfere in U.S. elections — an assertion that McConnell obviously resents deeply.

And just how deeply McConnell resents the “Moscow Mitch” moniker was evident during an appearance on Trump supporter Hugh Hewitt’s radio show on Tuesday.

“It’s an effort to smear me,” McConnell told Hewitt. “You know, I can laugh about things like the Grim Reaper, but calling me Moscow Mitch is over the top.”

View the complete September 3 article by Alex Henderson on the AlterNet website here.

The GOP is confirming Trump judicial nominees it stalled under Obama

Judges couldn’t get a vote when Obama was president. They’re getting on the bench under Trump

At least 10 judicial nominees who couldn’t even get a confirmation vote in the final years of President Barack Obama’s administration ended up on the bench after Donald Trump’s election.

Those nominees, blocked by Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell and other Republicans while Obama was in the White House, got a second chance. Rather than blocking them under Trump, McConnell sought to speed up the confirmation process. Thanks to the shift in political priorities, Republicans confirmed them with bipartisan support.

About 1 in 15 of the judges confirmed during the Trump administration were first nominated by Obama, a CQ Roll Call analysis found. Several more Obama nominees who were renominated by Trump are still awaiting a Senate vote.

View the complete August 26 article by Chris Cioffi on The Roll Call website here.

How a McConnell-backed effort to lift Russian sanctions boosted a Kentucky project

Washington Post logoIn January, as the Senate debated whether to permit the Trump administration to lift sanctions on Russia’s largest aluminum producer, two men with millions of dollars riding on the outcome met for dinner at a restaurant in Zurich.

On one side of the table sat the head of sales for Rusal, the Russian aluminum producer that would benefit most immediately from a favorable Senate vote. The U.S. government had imposed sanctions on Rusal as part of a campaign to punish Russia for “malign activity around the globe,” including attempts to sway the 2016 presidential election.

On the other side sat Craig Bouchard, an American entrepreneur who had gained favor with officials in Kentucky, the home state of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Bouchard was trying to build the first new aluminum-rolling mill in the United States in nearly four decades, in a corner of northeastern Kentucky ravaged by job losses and the opioid epidemic — a project that stood to benefit enormously if Rusal were able to get involved.

View the complete August 14 article by Tom Hamburger and Rosalind S. Helderman on The Washington Post here.

Trump, McConnell campaigns sell ‘Back-to-Back Supreme Court Champs’ T-shirts

Washington Post logoThe reelection campaigns of President Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Monday unveiled a new T-shirt touting the duo as “Back-to-Back Supreme Court Champs,” in a reference to the confirmations of Supreme Court Justices Neil M. Gorsuch and Brett M. Kavanaugh.

The black T-shirt features the silhouettes of Trump and McConnell on the front and the names of Gorsuch and Kavanaugh on its sleeves. It is available to supporters who make a donation of $35 or more through a joint fundraising site set up by both campaigns. Continue reading “Trump, McConnell campaigns sell ‘Back-to-Back Supreme Court Champs’ T-shirts”

Mitch McConnell is intent on getting Trump and himself re-elected ⁠— and will even let Russia help make it happen

AlterNet logo“It sure seems like Russia’s No. 1 ally in compromising American election security is Mitch McConnell.” That’s Oregon Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden, talking to Politico at this year’s DEFCON hacker conference in Las Vegas. Wyden and a couple of other Democrats were at the conference, “where a roomful of hackers demonstrated ways to breach insecure voting machines, those lawmakers focused their fury on the man proudly blocking their bills.”

Moscow Mitch, to be precise. “Why hasn’t Congress fixed the problem? Two words: Mitch McConnell,” Wyden said in his keynote address at DEF CON’s Voting Village. Rep. Ted Lieu, Democrat from California was there too, and told Politico his biggest election security concern: “I have two words: Mitch McConnell.” The House, along with having passed two bills that would expand background checks for gun purchases, has also passed election security bills.

McConnell is standing in the way of both, making him a legitimate threat to American’s personal safety and national security. He “knows full well that blocking election security legislation makes it easier for Russia and other foreign powers to attack the next election,” Wyden said. “And my sense is this is a price Mitch McConnell and Donald Trump are willing to accept.” Lieu agreed, “I think you have to ask, why would Mitch McConnell not want to improve election security?”

View the complete August 12 article by Joan McCarter from Daily Kos on the AlterNet website here.

Locking out ‘Team Mitch’ could cost Twitter

Decision by Republican campaign committees to withhold ad dollars from Twitter could have a tangible effect

The decision by Republican campaign committees to withhold ad dollars from Twitter could have a tangible effect.

The Republican National Committee, President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign as well as the House and Senate GOP campaign committees took that step in response to the social media platform’s temporary lockout of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s campaign account.

“Twitter has a clear bias against conservatives and Republicans. The hashtag associated the disgusting threats against Mitch McConnell was allowed to trend for an entire day. But McConnell’s posting of video of the threats themselves got his own account suspended. It is ludicrous bias in the extreme,” Trump campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh said in a statement.

View the complete August 8 article by Niels Lesniewski on The Roll Call website here.