Mitch McConnell, America’s longest-serving senator, is also America’s most unpopular senator, according to numerous polls. The Republican majority leader is even unpopular among his Kentucky constituents who voted for him — more than 60 percent say he needs to go. Mitch McConnell is the only senator who has received a home state disapproval rating as high as 50 percent in polls.
Perhaps it’s in part because so many of his self-described proudest moments have occurred not when he has achieved something positive, but when he has been blocking others’ efforts at achieving something positive. In fact, McConnell says that one of the accomplishments he is most proud of is blocking Obama’s Supreme Court nominee, Merrick Garland, until Obama’s term was up, so that Trump could pick his own nominee.
McConnell has complained about his new nickname, “Moscow Mitch,” earned as a result of his recent blockage of election security legislation. Yet, he blocked a bill that would sanction a Russian company, known to have been involved in election interference, days after it committed to putting a factory in Kentucky, Mitch McConnell’s home state.
Despite two more mass shootings that took place recently over one weekend in Dayton and in El Paso, McConnell won’t allow a Senate vote on bipartisan legislation that would require background checks on gun sales, even though the bill has already passed in the House.
McConnell’s campaign instead put up images of tombstones carrying the names of his Democrat opponents the day after the Dayton shooting.
Other bills McConnell has stalled include the Violence Against Women Act; the Equality Act, an anti-LGBT discrimination bill; and a non-binding resolution to release the full Mueller report.
McConnell has vowed that if Trump loses in 2020 to a Democrat, McConnell would block the Democratic agenda, even if the majority of American voters support that agenda. He has never denied that he doesn’t care what American voters want.
“If I’m still the majority leader in the Senate (in 2020), think of me as the Grim Reaper,” McConnell said recently. “None of that stuff is going to pass.”
McConnell says he plans to run again in 2020, confident he’ll win, despite his unpopularity. But voters are already taking steps to prevent another McConnell term: within 24 hours after Kentucky Democrat Amy McGrath announced she would be challenging Mitch McConnell, she raised $2.5 million. This time, perhaps it will be Mitch McConnell who is blocked.
Kentucky Wants to Break Up with Mitch McConnell | Full Frontal on TBS with Samantha Bee [2019-08-01]
Trump pushes back against attacks on Mitch McConnell | Fox News
[2019-07-30]
