Your regular reminder that McConnell abetted Russian election interference -- and is doing it again
Running 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.”
McConnell doesn’t have that card to play in the lead-up to the 2020 election, another one that he appears to be just as committed to helping Russia fix. As we speak, McConnell continues to refuse to take up legislation to protect the next election, falling back on that old saw, “states’ rights.” His excuse is that “Democrats would like to nationalize everything” and that they “want the federal government to take over the election process because they think that would somehow benefit them.” It does happen to be true that clean elections in which all eligible voters are able exercise their franchise tend to result in Democrats winning. That’s McConnell’s tell right there—he doesn’t want a clean election.
McConnell also argues that the Trump administration did a “terrific job” in working with state and local officials in the 2018 election and asks, “Where is the applause for that?” That’s in spite of the fact that bipartisan attorneys general were pleading with a then-Republican Congress to give them some help just a few months before the election, alarmed at the threat they knew existed.
Read more: https://www.alternet.org/2019/07/your-regular-reminder-that-mcconnell-abetted-russian-election-interference-and-is-doing-it-again/
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