Mitch McConnell's viral Black voter comments cause widespread furor

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Guardian

Republican Senate minority leader’s comments came after party members blocked voting rights bill and changes to filibuster rule

Joan E Greve in Washington
@joanegreve
Thu 20 Jan 2022 17.05 EST

Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell has sparked widespread outrage by drawing a distinction between Americans and African Americans in comments about Black voters which have gone viral online.

The Kentucky Republican was speaking after Republican senators once again blocked Democrats’ voting rights legislation on Capitol Hill on Wednesday evening.

Speaking to reporters after the bill failed and the Senate rejected a change to the filibuster rule that could facilitate its passage, McConnell was asked for his message to voters in minority communities who are concerned that voting restrictions being enacted in many states will keep them from the ballot box without new federal laws.

“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 said.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jan/20/mitch-mcconnell-republican-black-voter-comments-outrage

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Adding hand signals to his speeches, becoming more polished, if possible.

[Coventina]

1. Punchable face at every age. eom.

[burrowowl]

2. Yup!

[mahina]

3. Disgusting

💧🤬🤬🤡

[SunSeeker]

4. A racist and a liar. African American voters are NOT "voting in just as high a percentage."

In 2020, 70.9 percent of white voters cast ballots compared with only 58.4 percent of nonwhite voters — a disparity that will worsen with each new restrictive voting law. https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/large-racial-turnout-gap-persisted-2020-election

[PSPS]

5. The same Freudian slip as Daryl Gates, when he was the Los Angeles chief of police:

The same Freudian slip as Daryl Gates, back when he was the Los Angeles chief of police:

It was compassion that led him to authorize his officers to use two special methods for subduing those arrested --the "bar-arm hold" and the "carotid control hold," or choke hold, as it is also known. These disabling holds make it unnecessary for police officers to use their weapons.

It was compassion that led him, a couple of weeks ago, to ban the bar- arm hold, which blocks the flow of oxygen to the lungs.

And it was compassion that led him, a few days ago, to ask his personnel and training division to try to determine if blacks are more vulnerable than "normal people" to injury from the carotid control hold, which produces unconsciousness by cutting off the flow of blood to the brain. It seems that, since 1975, something like 15 persons have died as a result of the two techniques, and 12 of the victims have been black.

Chief Gates thought he was showing "great sensitivity" when he asked his aides to confirm his "hunch" that blacks might not recover as quickly as whites from carotid chokeholds. "We may be finding that in some blacks when it (the choke hold) is applied, the veins and arteries do not open as fast as they do in normal people."

[electric_blue68]

6. WHAaaaaa!?!? Your racist colors shown again, MkkkDonnel

[Prof. Toru Tanaka]

8. Add "Moscow" to that list of nicknames.

[XacerbatedDem]

9. The "Mooch"... LOL

Yeah, he found the right job for a "Mooch"er.

[ToxMarz]

10. Just like chuck todd distinguishing between "parents" and "parents of color"

[LetMyPeopleVote]

11. I love these responses to MoscowMitch's stupid and racist comment

Link to tweet

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[Aristus]

12. Jesus, he's always been a ogly sumbitch.

When he brings out my Texas, you know he's an asshole...

[monkeyman1]

13. well shit , now the stupid sumabitch has formally put republican's on the record ! "RACIST PARTY" !

[LetMyPeopleVote]

14. Opinion: #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.