The sitting president of the United States is hogging a lot of the media’s attention today, with him formally announcing his 2020 run during his 6,000th rally of the year, and that’s on top of once again claiming DNA evidence doesn’t exonerate the Central Park 5. But Mitch McConnell is doing what he can. The day after being called out (again) by Jon Stewart over his treatment of 9/11 first responders, the Senate majority leader revealed that he doesn’t support reparations for slavery.
If McConnell sees Obama’s election as a redemptive act in response to the “original sin of slavery,” where in our history does that situate McConnell’s obstruction during O’s admin, his vow to make him a one term president, his Merrick Garland power grab? pic.twitter.com/z0KQhy8beh
— southpaw (@nycsouthpaw) June 18, 2019
https://twitter.com/i/moments/1141071605159718912
Why not? Partly because the nation twice elected an African American to the job currently held by a man who claimed for years that he was born in Kenya, and that seems to have fixed everything.
“I don’t think reparations for something that happened 150 years ago for whom none of us currently living are responsible is a good idea,” McConnell said to reporters Tuesday. He claimed it would be difficult to know who to “compensate.” Besides, he thinks the government has done enough. “We’ve tried to deal with our original sin of slavery by fighting a civil war, by passing landmark civil rights legislation. We’ve elected an African American president.”
McConnell is of course referring to Barack Obama. Shortly after his first election in 2008, McConnell publicly boasted that he wanted Obama to “fail.” He then spent the eight years of Obama’s presidency trying to block everything he wanted. Perhaps most infamous is the fact that he’s bragged about not allowing even a hearing for Merrick Garland, Obama’s choice to replace the late Anthony Scalia.
McConnell’s words come the day before a House Judiciary Hearing is set to hear testimony in favor of reparations from, among others, journalist Ta-Nehisi Coates and actor/activist Danny Glover, as per BuzzFeed News. Worth noting: Both the House and the Senate have formally apologized for slavery, as have several states. One exception: Kentucky, represented by — that’s right — Mitch McConnell.
His statement was not well-received by portions of social media, but then again, McConnell’s words rarely are.
Donald Trump: I wont apologize to the Central Park 5.
Mitch McConnell: Hold my beer https://t.co/faunyKbUrK
— Jemele Hill (@jemelehill) June 18, 2019
Civil rights legislation wasn’t a gift or a reparation. It was an attempt to fulfill a promise embedded in the constitution.
McConnell has been a firm opponent of Obama and civil rights acts. He’s overseen their judicial and legislative erosion and the rise of the new Jim Crow.
— felinecannonball (@feline_cannon) June 18, 2019
The major arguments about reparations, going back to Coates's ATLANTIC piece, do not focus solely on slavery. They focus on the red-lining, segregation, and predatory lending that prevented freed black people from accumulating wealth over the years. https://t.co/Poxhtg4LPl
— Stephen Robinson (@SER1897) June 18, 2019
wow! a gen-u-ine "we gave you people obama" from the majority leader of the united states senate https://t.co/AtjVNg9WmC
— b-boy bouiebaisse (@jbouie) June 18, 2019
A lot of people focused on his curious Obama argument.
https://twitter.com/hassankhan/status/1141070010644754432
A lot to unpack here but to be clear, electing President Obama was ~not~ a form of reparations. https://t.co/8hHZHof9z6
— Indivisible Guide (@IndivisibleTeam) June 18, 2019
I love how Mitch McConnell claims “we’ve” elected an African American president.
Like he helped. https://t.co/7LoTqSxP5o
— Jon Cryer (@MrJonCryer) June 18, 2019
https://twitter.com/alexkotch/status/1141064409986584580
McConnell really said the country tried to deal with the original sin of slavery by electing Obama??
— Sam Stein (@samstein) June 18, 2019
WHAT?!!!… McConnell must have known I didn’t have a column idea yet. Damn… https://t.co/EghZvSClyQ
— Charles M. Blow (@CharlesMBlow) June 18, 2019
Today in America, the two most powerful GOP leaders: Mitch McConnell says electing a Black president made up for slavery & @realDonaldTrump doubled down on the wrongful conviction of Black & Hispanic teenagers. Almost at the exact same minute. https://t.co/hQpTMjhej5
— Joe Kennedy III (@joekennedy) June 18, 2019
Even people who almost agree with him don’t agree with him.
I'm personally against reparations, but the fact that a Senate Majority Leader doesn't realize that lumping the election of an African-American as president is a quasi-reparational "dealing with the original sin of slavery" is offensive in itself shows how far we have to go. https://t.co/pLsdNZxG0k
— Robert X George (@RobGeorge) June 18, 2019