After months of constantly blocking bipartisan efforts to address foreign election hacking, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) finally gave in on Thursday and announced his support for an election security funding measure of $250 million.
Welp. Looks like McConnell knows what’s in that whistleblower report and, yep, definitely its about Trump and Putin.
The need to create a counter-narrative about how tough, very tough, Trump has been on Putin by having him sign this legislation is the only reason Moscow Mitch be doing this.
Whether Putin lets Trump sign it is another question.
ETA: OMG! What if the promise to Putin was about not letting this specific legislation become law?
Hoping none of the $250 mil goes to Ivanka Trump’s trademarked voting machines. There probably is something nefarious in this or why else would Moscow Mitch change his mind?
That press statement by Moscow Mitch is outright BS…the guy must have 1984 memorized, it’s infuriating how much he does stuff like this. Odds are he waited as long as he could get away with before letting this through, so that the chances of really useful changes are going to go into effect are smaller.
ETA: If the whistleblower stuff is through Ukraine as the rumors suggest, then it is interesting that McConnell may be reacting to that with this package. The Giuliani-Ukraine tactic to interfere with the election by hurting Biden may have gone further than we thought, and Moscow Mitch may be trying to make it look like Republicans really are trying to protect elections, it’s just Trump doing dirty deeds. That would be followed by pitching Trump overboard and chaos in selecting a new candidate, so Mitch is trying to save the Senate by pulling this stunt. Hopefully it backfires, it’s a craven move on his part if that’s what he’s thinking.
Awfully interesting that he wouldn’t let this come up for months and now the spot light is again on the criminal in chief and Moscow Mitch decides to bring this up.
The Republican leader also jabbed at his Democratic critics, saying that the amendment is “exactly the kind of positive outcome” that is possible “when we stop posturing for the press.”