Tag: Sen. McConnell

Republicans scramble to contain Trump fallout

The Hill logoSenate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Tuesday sought to dispel the uproar over President Trump’s controversial tweets targeting four nonwhite Democratic lawmakers, but also defended the president by declaring he is not a racist. 

McConnell tried to quell the controversy that has raged since Sunday when Trump tweeted that four minority Democratic lawmakers should “go back” to their home countries — even though all of them are U.S. citizens — by calling for a broad ceasefire in Washington. 

“The president is not a racist,” McConnell responded after reporters pressed him Tuesday afternoon on whether Trump’s tweets were racist or whether the GOP leader himself would ever use such language. 

View the complete July 16 article by Alexander Bolton on The Hill website here.

Your regular reminder that McConnell abetted Russian election interference — and is doing it again

AlterNet logoRunning interference for the occupier of the Oval Office, the execrable Rep. Steve Scalise is attacking Joe Biden, saying “Russian interference in America’s elections happened on Obama and Biden’s watch.” That’s “irrefutable” he says, pointing to a craptacular 2017 CBS News report from 2017 that vaguely references the “political difficulties” President Obama faced in addressing Russian hacking without once mention Mitch McConnell.

Those political difficulties were entirely of McConnell’s making. He’s the guy who, in reporter Greg Miller’s retelling, was fully briefed on everything the intelligence committee knew about Russian interference. He was told that Russia was intervening to hurt Hillary Clinton and help Donald Trump. And McConnell told the CIA, “You’re telling us that Russia is trying to help elect Trump. If you try to come forward with this, I’m not going to sign onto any sort of public statement that would condemn Russian interference. But I will condemn you and the Obama administration for trying to mess up this election.” Continue reading “Your regular reminder that McConnell abetted Russian election interference — and is doing it again”

‘There is a strategy’: Noam Chomsky dismantles the Trump-McConnell Republican party ‘con game’

AlterNet logoEven for Donald Trump, the remarks were almost staggering in their density. Last month, in an exclusive interview with the Financial Times, Russian President Vladimir Putin declared that Western liberalism has “outlived its purpose,” adding that “it has come into conflict with the interests of the overwhelming majority of the population.” When asked during the G20 summit in Osaka if he agreed, Trump offered this gleaming ruby: “[Putin] sees what’s going on—I guess if you look at what’s happening in Los Angeles, where it’s so sad to look, and what’s happening in San Francisco and a couple of other cities, which are run by an extraordinary group of liberal people. I don’t know what they’re thinking.”

Trying to deduce any kind of grand strategy from a president who confuses the West with California and believes the moon is part of Mars can feel like a fool’s errand, if not “the purest acid satire.” But as Noam Chomsky argues in an interview with Truthout this week, “there is a strategy”—one that has empowered the far right across the globe and ultimately endangers human life on earth. If Ronald Reagan’s presidency was a tragedy, he speculates, then Trump’s is history repeating itself as farce.

“It’s understandable that the farce elicits ridicule, and no doubt some are relishing the coming photo-op of Trump and Boris Johnson upholding Anglo-American civilization,” claims the celebrated linguist and philosopher. “But for the world, it’s dead serious, from the destruction of the environment and the growing threats of terminal nuclear war to a long list of other crimes and horrors.”

View the complete July 7 article by Jacob Sugarman of Truthout and Noam Chomsky on the AlterNet website here.

Senate passes $4.6 billion emergency border bill after rejecting House version

Axios logoThe Senate on Wednesday voted 84-8 to pass a $4.6 billion bill that would appropriate funding for humanitarian aid for migrants and additional security measures at the southern border, after rejecting a House version of the bill that would impose greater restrictions on migrant detention centers.

The big picture: Democrats and Republicans have backed two separate plans to deal with reports of dangerous and unsanitary living conditions at migrant facilities on the southern border. The House and Senate must now reconcile the two bills or find an alternative solution before Congress leaves for its July 4 recess, with the Department of Health and Human Services warning that it could run out of funding to house migrant children by the end of the month.

The Senate version of the bill allocates $2.88 billion for the Office of Refugee Resettlement, the agency responsible for taking care of migrant children. It also provides funding to the Defense Department and agencies within the Department of Homeland Security, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement, to carry out President Trump’s immigration policies, per the New York Times.

  • Trump supports the Senate bill and has threatened to veto the House package.

View the complete June 26 article by Zachary Basu on the Axios website here.

9/11 first responders slam Mitch McConnell and Lindsey Graham for failing to renew compensation fund: ‘We’re just not going to take your crap’

Two 9/11 first responders lambasted Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina for failing to renew a compensation fund for 9/11 victims during a CNN appearance on Wednesday.

Interviewed by CNN’s John Berman for “New Day,” John Feal and Brian McGuire — both of whom were first responders at the World Trade Center in New York City following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks — asserted that neither McConnell nor Graham is doing enough to help 9/11 first responders receive the health care they need.

Feal, founder of the FeelGood Foundation, praised comedian Jon Stewart for his efforts on behalf of 9/11 first responders. And Feal noted that he has attended countless funerals since 9/11, saying, “I’ve been to over 180 of these funerals. This is painful. This is sad. And I’m tired of listening to excuses.”

View the complete June 12 article by Alex Henderson on the AlterNet website here.

Democrats set to use McConnell’s legislative graveyard against him

House Democrats are hoping to use Sen. Mitch McConnell‘s “legislative graveyard” as a messaging tool to topple GOP candidates in 2020.

McConnell (R-Ky.), the Senate majority leader, is embracing his role as a roadblock to the Democrats’ legislative agenda, casting himself as the “Grim Reaper” poised to kill the Democrats’ top policy priorities. The barrier has frustrated Democrats as they fight to advance legislation they promised voters in 2018, but they also see it as a political gift heading into next year’s elections.

Just this week, the House passed legislation granting legal protections to so-called Dreamers, immigrants brought to the country illegally as children. Democrats also hope to soon pass an increase to the minimum wage, and measures on climate change, health care and gun safety have already been approved.

View the complete June 7 article by Mike Lillis on The Hill website here.

Mitch McConnell really doesn’t care if you think he’s a hypocrite

He and his pals in the Federalist Society are laughing all the way to the bank.

For people who have been observing Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell very closely, recent remarks in which he casually flip-flopped from blocking Obama’s nominee to the Supreme Court to saying that he would gladly confirm one from Trump during an election year came as no surprise.

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Mitch McConnell doesn’t care that you think he’s a hypocrite.

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The smirk on his face when he says that he would fill a vacant seat on the Supreme Court if one opened up in 2020 tells you all you need to know. He is very well aware of the fact that he is a hypocrite and doesn’t give a damn that you know it too.

That is because, unlike a lot of liberals, McConnell has a theory of change—which he explains in the remainder of the video. As we’ve seen with what Trump is attempting to do to Obama’s legacy, both legislation and executive actions can be undone in one election. But judges are given lifetime appointments. So McConnell isn’t interested in passing legislation (except to secure tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations), but has spent the majority of the Senate’s time over the last three years stacking the courts with conservatives, something he calls his most consequential political accomplishment.

View the complete May 30 article by Nancy LeTourneau from The Washington Monthly on the AlterNet website here.

‘Lock her up’ vs. ‘Case closed’: McConnell and the Trump team’s self-serving view of criminal procedure

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) declared Tuesday morning that it’s “case closed” when it comes to President Trump and special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s Russia investigation.

Calling it a “Groundhog Day spectacle,” McConnell said, “This ought to be good news for everyone, but my Democratic colleagues seem to be publicly working through the five stages of grief.”

This is an argument Trump’s allies have made for weeks. “Case closed,” Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) said nine days ago when asked about whether he would call former White House counsel Donald McGahn to testify. “It’s over, folks,” White House counselor Kellyanne Conway said immediately after the Mueller report was released. The White House even declared “case closed” before we saw the report. “I don’t think it is going to be damaging,” press secretary Sarah Sanders said of the report, after Attorney Gene

View the complete May 7 article by Aaron Blake on The Washington Post website here.

Trump’s Mitch: McConnell Is The Most Disliked Senator

Mitch McConnell is the most unpopular person in the entire United States Senate.

A new poll from Morning Consult found that the Republican majority leader from Kentucky has the highest disapproval rating out of the 100 senators in the legislative body. McConnell has a 50 percent disapproval rating, with only 36 percent of respondents saying they approve of the job he is doing.

McConnell is the only senator in the entire survey whose home state voters registered a disapproval rate as high as 50 percent.

View the complete April 28 article by Oliver Willis on the National Memo website here.

Kavanaugh’s Confirmation Traumatized American Women, Study Shows—And May Have Made Them Less Safe

The Supreme Court Justice’s confirmation hearings left Americans fearful for women’s rights and safety and left many men less likely to believe a woman’s allegations of assault

More than six months after Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh was confirmed by the U.S. Senate, a new study shows how women and men were affected by revelations that the judge had been accused of sexual assault.

The non-partisan research firm PerryUndem surveyed about 1,300 people from across the country, finding that more Americans believe Kavanaugh’s accuser, Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, than did directly after the hearings—and that most believe Kavanaugh lied under oath about the alleged assault.

One in four women told the company that watching the hearings in September had caused them to re-experience past trauma. The number was larger for Latin American women, at one in three.

View the complete April 16 article by Julia Conley on the Common Dreams website here.