Mitch McConnell slams 'outrageous mischaracterization' over his comment about Black voters

[Jilly_in_VA]

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said Friday there has been an "outrageous mischaracterization" of his history on voting rights and race relations in response to a misspoken comment he made about Black voter turnout.

A backlash built up after McConnell responded Wednesday to a question about voting-related concerns voiced by voters of color by saying: "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."

Many people decried his comment as implying Black people are not Americans.

McConnell clarified Friday that he inadvertently left out the word 'all' before the word 'Americans' in that much-lambasted sentence. He also pushed back against criticisms of his record during his decades-long political career that have accompanied the uproar over what he said Wednesday.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2022/01/21/mitch-mcconnell-slams-outrageous-mischaracterization-over-his-comment-black-voters/6614989001/
__________________________________________________________________
Mitch, please! "Gaffe", my sainted Aunt Matilda!

[Fullduplexxx]

1. It is in your own words turtle dork

[live love laugh]

2. Pure BS 💩: "Methinks thou dost protest too much."

[cilla4progress]

3. Bullshit.

Lordy - there are tapes! And photos!

Old effing racist!

[pandr32]

4. I seem to remember a picture with a confederate flag behind MM

" 'outrageous mischaracterization' " my ass.

[Solly Mack]

5. How dare you suggest my racist comment was racist!

[live love laugh]

7. ✔️+

[oswaldactedalone]

6. Hey Moscow Mitch

Go fuck yourself you racist POS.

[Greybnk48]

8. Freudian slip, from a racist pig. n/t

[Tom Rinaldo]

9. There are so many reasons to condemn him, and ample opportunities to do so forcefully

But I will admit that I thought there was a strong dose of "gotchism"in the attacks against him regarding that comment. I strongly suspect that a Freudian slip was to blame for him not saying all Americans in the first place. So it was fair game to point that out, but going a little overboard to assert that he declared that African Americans are not normal Americans. Still, he had it coming to him anyway.

[Progressive Jones]

12. Whatever it takes. McConnell needs a reckoning. I support using his "Freudian slip" aginst him. nt

[stopdiggin]

17. +1. while I have absolutely no sympathies whatsoever

with either the man or his craven politics ....
It was clearly a brain fart - and recognized as such almost immediately.
If you want to go Freudian slip (because - McConnell) - I suppose ..

[OilemFirchen]

24. Yeah. Just a Freudian slip.

Freud·i·an slip
/ˌfroidēən ˈslip/

noun

an unintentional error regarded as revealing subconscious feelings.

[JustAnotherGen]

31. Gotchism

Or what we've known all along.

Let's be real - the vast majority of white Republicans dislike us.

Black folks have every right in the world to ride that thing's sorry ass. We know WHO and WHAT Mitch is.

[Walleye]

10. Sure will give them the same respect he would give Biden.

[SWBTATTReg]

11. Funny how they try to backtrack their words...often times, when people make a glitch or misspeak,

most people do allow a normal 'opps' moment to occur/happen when conversations happen, it happens, we all do sometimes put our foot into our mouths.

But when they have a reputation such as Moscow Mitch has, sometimes rolling back the impact of an uttered statement is impossible simply because of their already tainted reputation (like this particular senator has, not a good one), and is actually what they meant to say to begin with.

[MarcA]

16. +1000 n/t

[elias7]

32. And it's never an apologetic tone, it's always in the form of an attack

[ibegurpard]

13. It wasn't a deliberate slight

It was an unconscious acknowledgment of the reality that most white Americans see African Americans as other.
If white people could actually sit with that and acknowledge it we might be able to get somewhere. Instead they get so defensive and fight against it so hard they make things worse.

[Baitball Blogger]

14. This is what happens when the brain gets old and the filters come down.

[Midnight Writer]

15. Good job, Mitch. Keep the story alive. Now MSM has another peg to replay this story.

[stopdiggin]

18. have to agree

let's wade right on in to that snake pit ....

(I would have thought Mitch, and advisors, were more adroit)

[maxrandb]

19. Wait, what?! Is the MSM actually holding a Retrumplicans feet to the fire?

Surely, by now they would have figured out a way to blame Democrats for Moscow Mitch's comment.

Whenever something surprised my Grandma she would say; "i'm gonna pass right out of the picture".

Now I know what she meant.

Give it a minute and Andrea Mitchell and Chuck Todd will be asking Democrats why they made Mitch say such a thing.

[flor-de-jasmim]

20. Sorry, Mitch. The word ALL doesn't help.

You still need to add the word OTHER.

[UTUSN]

21. Hah! - how can something *literal* be mischaracterized?!

[keithbvadu2]

22. Revisionist history?

[LetMyPeopleVote]

23. #MitchPlease, Black Americans are Americans

MoscowMitch confirmed that the GOP does not think that only white persons are really Americans.

Link to tweet

When asked on Wednesday what he would tell voters of color who fear they won’t be able to vote in November’s midterm elections because of the Senate’s failure to pass the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, the Kentucky Republican said, “If you look at the statistics, African American voters are voting in just as high percentage as Americans.”

First off, McConnell knows how misleading this is. He ignores all the hoops and hurdles Black voters (and the young and the elderly) have to jump through and over not only to register to vote, but to actually cast a vote on Election Day. This doesn’t even take into account the millions who are being discouraged from even trying to vote.

But secondly — and far more importantly — African Americans are Americans. Isn’t it sad that really the only times I feel seen as an American are when I’m abroad? I’m not saying racism doesn’t exist outside of the United States. What I am saying is that the rest of the world can see that I’m American. Why is it so hard for so many White Americans?.....

Even if the measured McConnell did misspeak, the slip shows how ossified the assumptions in our political discourse still are: “White” is always the default. Talk of suburban voters is really about White suburban voters. Women voters really means White women. And, as McConnell put it, American voters really means White American voters.

[live love laugh]

34. Hahaha love it: "#MitchPlease"

[Cha]

25. If mitch didn't talk shit.. he wouldn't

have to whine about "mischaracterization"

[DFW]

26. The Jeopardy buzzer sounded long ago

If he was going to correct his statement and still maintain any credibility, the time to do it was five seconds after he said it. A day later is not a correction. It is damage control. The best damage control would have been, „that has to be the worst gaffe I ever made, and I deserve every bit of bashing I got for not immediately noticing it.“ But he is still Moscow Mitch, so of course he would never say anything like that.

[radius777]

27. Dogwhistles to the base,

Lee Atwater would be proud.

[lame54]

28. Victimizer is really the victim

[Samrob]

29. NO! He left out the word "other" and still has left it out.

"All" doesn't fix it. But then, the privileged really don't have to master grammar, do they?

[JustAnotherGen]

30. He's lying - he meant it

I'm not stupid.

[elias7]

33. Yeah he is and he did....

When any normal human says something that clearly comes out wrong, you self correct in that moment because it FEELS wrong. Like if I said “the Democrat party”, I would fix that immediately because it just wrong to say that. Mitch is a smart guy and although this was not the politically correct thing to say, he said EXACTLY what he means. I know this because his ACTIONS resonate with his racist statement. He does not consider them the same as white Americans; he considers black people to be a lower caste. He is repulsive and is a lower caste of human being in my categorization system.