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Mitch McConnell Lashed Out On The Senate Floor After Being Dubbed As ‘Moscow Mitch’ By Critics

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Last week, Special Counsel Robert Mueller testified in no uncertain terms before Congress that the Russian government’s ongoing efforts to interfere in our election is a serious threat to American democracy. Yet, just hours later, Senate Republicans blocked bi-partisan bills that would require presidential campaigns to report any offers of assistance from agents of foreign governments to the FBI.

The following day, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer attempted to pass the Securing America’s Federal Elections Act that would direct $600 million in election assistance to states and require backup paper ballots, and this time Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell personally shut down the bill.

“It’s just a highly partisan bill from the same folks who spent two years hyping up a conspiracy theory about President Trump and Russia,” McConnell claimed. “Therefore, I object.”

It didn’t take long for outrage to boil over, as the Washington Post published an op-ed titled “Mitch McConnell is a Russian asset,” and Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough quickly coined the term #MoscowMitch, which soon began trending on Twitter.

By Monday afternoon, Mitchy Mitch had caught wind of the unflattering nickname, and he was decidedly not amused — and decided to air his complaints on the Senate floor.

“Over the last several days, I was called unpatriotic, un-American and essentially treasonous by a couple of left-wing pundits on the basis of boldfaced lies,” he said, even though Scarborough is literally a career Republican. “I was accused of aiding and abetting the very man I’ve singled out as an adversary and opposed for nearly 20 years, Vladimir Putin.”

“The host lied and said that I’ve dismissed Russian interference in our 2016 election as ‘a hoax,'” he later continued. “Of course, I’ve never said any such thing, ever. I’ve spoken extensively and often about Russia’s unacceptable interference in 2016.”

Cool story dude, so … maybe protect our elections, then? Not surprisingly, McConnell’s detractors didn’t have much in the way of sympathy to offer on Twitter.

https://twitter.com/DebraMessing/status/1156076040139051009

https://twitter.com/TrisResists/status/1155989824005783552

And Fox New host Shep Smith likewise wasn’t having McConnell’s protests, literally interrupting him on air to call out the lies:

https://twitter.com/JonLevi/status/1155953888295448576

Of course, McConnell’s motives are obvious. Admitting that the Russians are a continued threat would essentially put him in agreement that they swayed the 2016 election in Trump’s favor, which would more than likely infuriate his boss. Clearly, it’s much safer to just throw American democracy under the bus.