McConnell seeks to deflect Dems’ ‘Moscow Mitch’ taunts
FANCY FARM, Ky. — Primed for Russia-related issues from his detractors at Kentucky’s premier political event, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Saturday it’s fitting for local Democrats to wear “Moscow Mitch” shirts depicting the communist-era hammer and sickle.
After all, McConnell reasoned, Democrats are from the party pushing for the Green New Deal and Medicare for All.
Democrats waved “Moscow Mitch” signs and broke into chants as they prepared to heckle the sixth-term Republican Senator during the stump-style speaking at the Fancy Farm picnic — the political event of the year in Kentucky. McConnell has come under attack for blocking election security legislation aimed at protecting the nation’s political system against foreign attacks.
Before McConnell and the other speakers took the other stage, a Democratic strategist fired up his party’s stalwarts by waving a “Moscow Mitch” sign to the sweaty crowd split along Republican and Democratic lines. Democrats opened into “Moscow Mitch” chants.
Earlier Saturday, McConnell fired back at his detractors during a Republican breakfast where he received an ovation.
“It’s appropriate to see a bunch of Democrats running around with communist flags on their shirts,” the senator told reporters at the breakfast. “That ought to tell you something about where they want to take the country with the Green New Deal and Medicare for All. Their whole agenda would fundamentally change the country with something it’s never been.”
The Kentucky Democratic Party is hawking Tshirts, depicting McConnell wearing a Cossack hat with the hammer and sickle symbol and declaring: “Just say Nyet to Moscow Mitch.” Buttons, stickers, and other merchandise was also available.
The attacks have become a big windfall for the party, with sales reaching $350,000 since Wednesday.
Long on the receiving end of McConnell’s pointed attacks, the Democrats relished a chance to go on the offensive against the senator. McConnell is up for reelection next year and has aligned himself closely with President Donald Trump.
The attacks against McConnell come after a Washington Post columnist recently criticized him for blocking legislation. Noting Russia’s cyberintrusion on the 2016 presidential election and indications that it would try again next year, the column was headlined, “Mitch McConnell is a Russian asset.”
MSNBC host Joe Scarborough quickly weighed in with the “Moscow Mitch” nickname, a moniker Kentucky Democrats say was coined by a retired schoolteacher in the state.
McConnell has likened the attacks to “modern-day McCarthyism.”
McConnell on Saturday defended efforts to stymie Russian interference in US elections, saying he’s “absolutely confident we’re going to have a secure election in 2020.”