McConnell faces backlash after comparing ‘African Americans’ to ‘Americans’
McConnell expressed his view at a news conference related to voting rights.
U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell seemingly believes that Black Americans are not actually Americans.
McConnell said as much at a news conference related to voting rights. After the failed John Lewis legislation late Wednesday night, a reporter asked him about concerns among Black voters and McConnell revealed how he and the GOP really feel.
“Well the concern is misplaced, because if you look at the statistics, African-American voters are voting in just as high a percentage as Americans,” McConnell responded, Newsweek reports.
Several Twitter users seem to agree that McConnell meant to say: “African American voters are voting in just as high a percentage as white Americans.”
“In one quote, he summarized the entire GOP worldview. They think it’s a white nation and anyone who isn’t white isn’t a true American,” tweeted TV writer Bryan Behar.
“Republican racism, republican communism and republican hypocrisy,” tweeted one user.
“Being Black doesn’t make you less of an American, no matter what this craven man thinks,” former Kentucky Rep. Charles Booker tweeted.
The Freedom to Vote Act and John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act would have expanded voting access in states with a history of discrimination. The legislation would have made Election Day a national holiday and allowed voters early access to voting polls, mail-in ballots, and more.
After debating the bill for two consecutive days in a long shot bid to advance the voting rights legislation, Republicans tanked the bill, theGrio reported. Soon after, two members of the Democrats’ own party refused to change Senate rules in order to overcome Republican opposition and pass the bill with a simple majority.
After the US Senate voted against the John R. Lewis Act on Wednesday night, President Joe Biden said at a press conference: “I am profoundly disappointed that the United States Senate has failed to stand up for our democracy. I am disappointed — but I am not deterred.”
“My Administration will never stop fighting to ensure that the heart and soul of our democracy — the right to vote — is protected at all costs. We will continue to work with allies to advance necessary legislation to protect the right to vote. And to push for Senate procedural changes that will protect the fundamental right to vote.”
McConnell noted in an opinion piece for The Courier-Journal that “Washington Democrats have desperately wanted to take over our elections for years, even though their justification seems to change every election cycle.”
“After losing the White House in 2016, they said the takeover was necessary because our democracy was fundamentally broken…Now that they’ve won the White House, their story has flipped: Our democracy is in perfect shape, except when Republican-controlled states dare to pass mainstream voting laws.”
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