Tag: Mitch McConnell

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News Round-Up: January 12, 2021

Real-life couple featured in new Cadbury chocolate ad

Real-life couple featured in new Cadbury chocolate ad
(screen capture via Cadbury)
Some news items you might have missed: • OUT: One half of the real-life gay couple in that Cadbury ad (above) clapped back at critics of the spot – “I’m sure there would be half as many complaints if it was two ‘beautiful’ cisgendered hetero-looking Caucasian women. Get your act together world: y’all are as hypocritical and uneducated and bizarre as Donald Trump.” • The Advocate: Hillsborough has become the first town in North Carolina to adopt LGBTQ-inclusive antidiscrimination protections since the state’s ban on doing so expired. • NowThis News: “Knock the crap out of ’em, would you? I promise you, I will pay for the legal fees” — Watch this report on how Donald Trump has been inciting violence from his supporters for years.

• LGBTQ Nation: An 18-year-old lesbian who says she has been kicked out of her home for being gay has outed her Trump-loving family members who participated in the violent altercation in D.C. last week. • New York Times: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has told associates that he believes Donald Trump committed impeachable offenses and that he is pleased that Democrats are moving to impeach him, believing that it will make it easier to purge him from the party, according to people familiar with his thinking. • NBC News: Michael Sherwin, the acting U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, and Steven D’Antuono, head of the FBI’s Washington field office, briefed reporters on the sprawling criminal investigation designed to catch those who took part in the violent Capitol insurrection last week. They said that the FBI had opened 160 case files, and that “this is only the beginning.”

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Mitch McConnell Effectively Kills $2K Stimulus Checks

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY)
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced there won’t be a vote for increasing stimulus checks to Americans to $2,000 because some might not need it. This was completely expected as McConnell has shown no interest in actually sending funds to Americans during the pandemic. Mind you, he had no problem handing out tax cuts for the wealthiest worth far, far more. From the New York Times:

Senator Mitch McConnell, the majority leader, said on Wednesday that the chamber would not consider the issue of larger stimulus checks separately from two other demands issued by President Trump: the investigation of election security and the removal of legal protections for social media platforms. The decision all but dooms the effort to increase direct payments to $2,000.

“Here’s the deal: The Senate is not going to split apart the three issues that President Trump linked together just because Democrats are afraid to address two of them,” Mr. McConnell, the Kentucky Republican, said.

A stand-alone bill to increase the payments, he said, has “no realistic path to quickly pass the Senate.”

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Mitch McConnell Blocks Vote On $2K Stimulus Checks

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell
Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell blocked a vote to increase the amount of stimulus checks to Americans to $2,000 after the House overwhelmingly approved the legislation yesterday. From the Washington Post:

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Tuesday blocked consideration of a House bill that would deliver $2,000 stimulus payments to most Americans — spurning a request by President Trump even as more Senate Republicans voiced support for the dramatically larger checks.

McConnell’s move was just the beginning of a saga that is likely to engulf the Senate for the rest of the week. Democrats are pushing for an up-or-down vote on the House bill, while more Republicans acknowledge a need for larger stimulus checks.

Proponents include Georgia’s two embattled Republican senators — David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler — who find themselves in tough reelection battles that will decide the fate of the chamber next week.

The Donald was not pleased as he tweeted, “Unless Republicans have a death wish, and it is also the right thing to do, they must approve the $2000 payments ASAP. $600 IS NOT ENOUGH!”

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Mitch McConnell (Finally) Acknowledges Biden/Harris Win

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (screen capture)
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) on Tuesday finally acknowledged President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala D. Harris on their White House win, one day after the electoral college affirmed the result in state capitals across the country. “As of this morning our country has officially a president-elect and a vice president-elect,” McConnell said Tuesday speaking on the Senate floor. “Many of us hoped that the presidential election would yield a different result, but our system of government has processes to determine who will be sworn in January 20.” “The electoral college has spoken. So today I want to congratulate President-elect Joe Biden.” “I also want to congratulate the vice president-elect, our colleague from California, Senator Harris,” added McConnell. “Beyond our differences, all Americans can take pride that our nation has a female vice president-elect for the very first time.” While Republicans are slowly nodding ‘Yes, there will be a new president in January,’ Donald Trump continues to deny the outcome. Early Tuesday, he tweeted, “This Fake Election can no longer stand.”

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Congressional Republicans Push Back On Trump’s Call To Delay Election

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY)
Congressional Republicans pushed back on Donald Trump’s suggestion that the 2020 presidential election should be delayed. Trump tweeted Thursday that mail-in voting would “be the most INACCURATE & FRAUDULENT Election in history.” He suggested the election be delayed “until people can properly, securely and safely vote???” From Huffpost:

Hours after Trump’s tweet, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) assured a Kentucky news station that the government would make sure the election takes place on Nov. 3.

“Never in the history of the country, through wars and depressions and the Civil War, have we ever not had a federally scheduled election on time, and we’ll find a way to do that again this November third,” McConnell told WNKY-TV.

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) assured reporters that the law was clear about the election date.

“All these things are pretty well set and have been going on for decades,” Grassley said. “So we are a country based on the rule of law, so nobody is going to change anything until we change the law.”

When asked whether Trump’s suggestion on Twitter was appropriate, Grassley said: “It doesn’t matter what an individual in this country says; we still are a country based on the rule of law.”

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) pointed out that the U.S. has never missed an election.

“Never in the history of federal elections have we ever not held an election, and we should go forward with our election,” he said.

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Lincoln Project Ad Takes Aim At #RichMitch McConnell’s Personal Wealth

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell
Wow. The Lincoln Project, a super PAC comprised of anti-Trump conservatives, has released some potent attack ads against the Donald in recent days and now they are going after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. The new ad focuses on the Kentucky Republican’s personal wealth and wonders aloud how #RichMitch became one of the wealthiest men in the Senate on a senator’s salary. The spot also draws contrasts between his financial good fortune versus how his state has fared during his 35 years in Washington – ranked 40th in job opportunity, ranked 45th in education and 43rd in health care.

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News Round-Up: May 14, 2020

The cast of Queer Eye heads to Philadelphia this June on Netflix
Some news items you might have missed: • Netflix: Who’s ready for the season of brotherly love? Grab your oars, a life vest, and an extremely absorbent box of tissues because Queer Eye Season 5 (above) is arriving in Philly, June 5th! • NewNowNext: A new queer-centric concert series: Outloud: Raising Voices, a 10-episode benefit show featuring livestreamed performances from LGBTQ and allied artists, will kick off May 26 with performances by Kesha, Betty Who and more. Funds raised during the epic five-week affair will benefit local Pride organizers impacted by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. • OUT: Under the veil of secrecy, legislators have crafted and rushed through a new civil code for the island of Puerto Rico. Having passed both the House of Representatives and the Senate, the legislation is awaiting the signature of Governor Wanda Vázquez Garced. But, advocates warn that amendments to the bill made without public debate and adequate time for analyzing could roll back LGBTQ+ rights. • The Hill: Donald Trump went without a mask during a visit to a Pennsylvania medical equipment distribution center (again) even as other government officials in his party wore face coverings around the facility. • Yahoo News: Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is being sued for her revised federal guidelines on how sexual assault allegations should be handled on college and K-12 campuses. Plaintiffs say (and they are right) the changes would “inflict significant harm” on victims and “dramatically undermine” their civil rights. • Fox News: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell admitted he lied when he said the Obama administration did not leave behind any “game plan” for responding to a pandemic.

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NY Gov. Cuomo Slams Mitch McConnell “Who Is Bailing Out Whom?”

L-R Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York, Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky
From NowThis News:

States across the U.S. are struggling to deal with the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic. New York state has been hit especially hard, as coronavirus cases across the state and New York City increase.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, who holds coronavirus press briefings regularly, has called out Donald Trump and the Trump admin for its response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Recently, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo laid into Mitch McConnell and Senate Republicans for blocking emergency aid for Democratic states amid COVID-19.

As Gov. Cuomo points out, New York state pays $29 billion more to the federal government than it gets back on an annual basis. But Sen. McConnell’s state of Kentucky regularly takes $37 billion MORE than it sends to Washington DC, and Sen. Rick Scott of Florida sees his state take $30 billion more than it sends to the federal government. So, when McConnell and his GOP compatriots say they don’t want to “bailout” states like New York, Cuomo rightfully asks, “Who is bailing out whom?”

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Senate Likely To Begin Trump Impeachment Trial January 21

MSNBC reports Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said Tuesday that the Senate’s trial of President Donald Trump will likely begin Tuesday.

The announcement comes as Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi indicated the House will vote to transmit the articles of impeachment to the Senate on Wednesday.

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Pelosi Will Send Impeachment Articles To Senate Next Week

L-R Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell
The Washington Post reports Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi will transmit the articles of impeachment against Donald Trump next week.

As recently as Thursday, Pelosi continued to insist that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) should release a resolution laying out rules of a trial before the articles were transmitted.

The crux of the Democrats’ case is the allegation that President Trump tried to leverage a White House meeting and military aid, sought by Ukraine to combat Russian military aggression, to pressure Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to launch an investigation of former vice president Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden, as well as a probe of an unfounded theory that Kyiv conspired with Democrats to interfere in the 2016 presidential election.

Pelosi has delayed transmitting the articles for weeks in an effort to pressure Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to announce the rules for the impending trial. On Thursday, McConnell told senators they should keep their schedules flexible for the end of next week when they might take up impeachment. In related news, Sen. Susan Collins of Maine says she is working with a small group of fellow Republican senators towards the goal of ensuring witnesses will be called during the Senate trial.