On Tuesday morning, as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell gave a somber assessment of the state of the country following the Mueller report as tragically split along party lines, Democrats prepared to roll out their 2020 campaign ad on McConnell’s “legislative graveyard.”
AG Barr acknowledged that anonymous election funding makes American elections vulnerable to foreign interference
HR 1—the #ForthePeople Act—would do away with dark money & protect our elections
Too bad HR 1 has been sent to @SenateMajLdr McConnell’s legislative graveyard to die https://t.co/pAnM1bTDHu
— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) May 6, 2019
The ad refers to more than 400 bills passed in the House, most of which had at least some bipartisan support, such as the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), the Fair Pay Act, and the For the People Act, which is designed to keep big money out of politics. Although one chamber of Congress agreed to pass these bills, McConnell has refused to bring any of them up for a vote in the Senate. Instead of doing his job to lobby other Republicans to unify in their policy ideology, McConnell has taken the lazy way out and abused his power as leader.
Imagine the irony, then, of McConnell decrying a partisan split as giving Russians, who interfered in the 2016 presidential elections, exactly what they want.
According to POLITICO, McConnell said of the Mueller investigation that:
‘This investigation went on for two years. It’s finally over. Many Americans were waiting to see how their elected officials would respond. With an exhaustive investigation complete, would the country finally unify to confront the real challenges before us? Would we finally be able to move on from partisan paralysis and breathless conspiracy theorizing? Or would we remain consumed by unhinged partisanship, and keep dividing ourselves to the point that Putin and his agents need only stand on the sidelines and watch as their job is done for them?’
Mitch McConnell has turned the Senate into a legislative graveyard. He has refused to bring up any of the critical pieces of legislation that the House has passed to reduce gun violence, strengthen our health care system, and reform our broken campaign finance system. pic.twitter.com/d3GNf84quw
— Chris Van Hollen (@ChrisVanHollen) May 2, 2019
Not only is McConnell the same man who simply refused to bring President Obama’s nominee for the Supreme Court, Merrick Garland, up for a confirmation vote, he’s also the man who smiled at his donors and followers and promised to be the “grim reaper” of progressive legislation even though the members of Congress who support that legislation in a majority were elected by the American people to pass that legislation.
‘Think of me as the grim reaper. None of that stuff is going to pass. None of it.’
❌ The Violence Against Women Act
❌ Voting and Democracy Reform
❌ Net Neutrality
❌ Background Checks
❌ Paycheck Fairness@SenateMajLdr McConnell is blocking them all by turning the Senate into his legislative graveyard.That. Is. Not. Acceptable. pic.twitter.com/6iaOHNd2gB
— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) May 7, 2019
Speaker Nancy Pelosi has called out McConnell for his obstructionist tactics before, noting that many of the bills that were passed in the House were not designed to undercut GOP legislation or ideology. In fact, VAWA was historically a bipartisan bill and the For the People Act would equally restrict Democrats from taking dark money during political elections.
‘We have Mitch McConnell, who in his fundraising pitches has described himself as the ‘grim reaper,’ the grim reaper for any legislation that comes over from the House that will go a Senate graveyard…if you’re a woman, the Violence Against Women Act, equal pay for equal work that we sent over to the Senate, the grim reaper, Mitch McConnell, will kill it.’
For the full ad, see video below:
Featured image screenshot via YouTube
