McConnell under fire for burying election bills in 'legislative graveyard'

Source: The Hill | July 27, 2019 | 07/27/19

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is under fire from Democrats for repeatedly blocking election security legislation in recent days.

The simmering anger among Senate Democrats reached a boiling point this week when McConnell blocked two attempts to pass election bills shortly after former special counsel Robert Mueller warned that foreign governments will interfere in the 2020 elections.

“We are not going to let Leader McConnell put the bills passed by the House into his legislative graveyard without a fight. You’re going to hear from us on this issue over and over again,” Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said on the Senate floor.

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, called McConnell “Russia’s biggest ally” in its meddling efforts, while Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Schumer’s No. 2, accused the GOP leader of “abdicating his responsibility to protect American democracy so he can protect a President who unravels it day-by-day.”

Democrats are hitting McConnell, who is up for reelection next year, from all angles: showdowns on the floor, press conferences and an endless barrage of tweets. Their ultimate goal, they say, is to try to force McConnell to move legislation or at least go on the record blocking bills heading into 2020.

McConnell fired back in a series of tweets Friday night while seeking to raise money for his campaign, saying “Democrats’ Russian conspiracy theories against President Trump hit a dead end during the Mueller hearing” and “now, like a failed doomsday cult that predicted the end of the world, the liberal grifters need a fresh target: Mitch.”

One of the bills pushed by Senate Democrats would require the use of paper ballots and boost election funding; the other would mandate that candidates, campaign officials and family members notify the FBI of assistance offers from foreign governments.

The House has sent the Senate two major election security bills since Democrats regained the majority earlier this year, but both have been sidelined by McConnell.

McConnell’s blockade went viral Friday after MSNBC host and former GOP lawmaker Joe Scarborough repeatedly referred to the GOP leader as “Moscow Mitch.”

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