Democrats can’t stand Mitch McConnell. As Senate Majority Leader, he has been far too effective confirming judges and supporting other aspects of Trump’s agenda for the left’s liking.
To the left and media’s delight, retired Marine pilot Amy McGrath announced her candidacy to unseat McConnell in 2020. Yes, the same woman who ran unsuccessfully for the 6th Congressional district in 2018.
Paul Waldman of the Washington Post seems to be taking her very seriously:
Mitch McConnell has a real challenger Want to know who the most unpopular politician in America is? Nope, it’s not President Trump. Not Nancy Pelosi, either. It’s Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.He’s up for reelection next year, and he has a potentially strong challenger in Amy McGrath, who announced her candidacy Monday. McGrath is an appealing candidate, but she has an uphill climb ahead of her, in ways that illuminate the polarized, partisan environment we find ourselves in.You can watch McGrath’s excellent announcement video above. What’s interesting about it is the way she takes a familiar and often trite argument but applies it to somebody who for a change actually deserves the criticism.
Here’s the video Waldman is referring to:
It has been pointed out by more than one pundit that this video does not contain a single mention of the word “Kentucky.”
Geoffrey Skelley of FiveThirtyEight takes a more realistic view and notes that while McGrath came close in her 2018 run for Congress, she ultimately came up short:
The Democrats Have A Candidate In Kentucky. But Can She Beat Mitch McConnell?Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is up for reelection in 2020, and Democrats would love nothing more than to defeat the GOP leader. And now one major Democratic candidate has stepped up to challenge him: retired Marine pilot Amy McGrath. But Democrats shouldn’t get their hopes up too high. Kentucky’s strong Republican lean makes it unlikely that McGrath or any other Democrat will defeat McConnell in 2020.McGrath, of course, is no stranger to just how difficult it is to run as a Democrat in Kentucky. In 2018, she ran unsuccessfully for Kentucky’s 6th District where she lost to incumbent GOP Rep. Andy Barr by 3 points…And while McGrath might be one of the best candidates Democrats can put up against McConnell, it will still be mighty difficult for her to actually win in ruby red Kentucky.
I should point out that just 24 hours before her announcement, the media decided by pure coincidence to dig into McConnell’s family history.
Corky Siemaszko reported at NBC News:
Sen. Mitch McConnell’s great-great-grandfathers owned 14 slaves, bringing reparations issue close to homeSenate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who said recently he opposes paying government reparations to the descendants of American slaves, has a family history deeply entwined in the issue: Two of his great-great-grandfathers were slave owners, U.S. census records show.The two great-great-grandfathers, James McConnell and Richard Daley, owned a total of at least 14 slaves in Limestone County, Alabama — all but two of them female, according to the county “Slave Schedules” in the 1850 and 1860 censuses.The details about McConnell’s ancestors, discovered by NBC News through a search of ancestry and census records, came in the wake of recent hearings on reparations before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties.
Finally, while McGrath should be commended for her military service to America, she compared Trump’s 2016 win to the attacks of September 11th.
Tal Axelrod writes at The Hill:
Trump blasts McConnell’s Democratic challenger: She ‘compared my election to September 11th’President Trump on Tuesday evening hammered Amy McGrath, the newly-announced Democratic challenger to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R) in Kentucky, slamming her for comparing his election to 9/11…McGrath, who narrowly lost a House race in the Bluegrass State last year, has lamented Trump’s White House victory, saying it felt similar to the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.“And that morning I woke up like somebody had sucker punched me,” she said at a November 2017 candidate forum, according to the Courier Journal. “I felt like, ‘what has just happened to my country?’ The only feeling I can describe that’s any close to it was the feeling I had after 9/11.”
To his credit, CNN’s Jake Tapper asked her to explain this. The video below is cued to begin at the 3:26 mark, just press play:
Jerry Dunleavy of the Washington Examiner hit the mark with this analysis:
Featured image via YouTube.
CLICK HERE FOR FULL VERSION OF THIS STORY