Mitch McConnell has a whole new problem
This week’s election results in Kentucky were unmistakably bad news for Mitch McConnell’s 2020 reelection bid. If an upstart Democratic candidate can defeat an unpopular Republican incumbent like Matt Bevin in Kentucky, then an upstart Democratic candidate can defeat an unpopular Republican incumbent like McConnell in Kentucky as well. But McConnell faces another issue here beyond his reelection prospects.
Mitch McConnell earned the nickname “Moscow Mitch” because he’s repeatedly blocked various bipartisan attempts at safeguarding U.S. elections against Russian hacking, and because he moved to ease sanctions against a Russian aluminum oligarch who then opened up an aluminum plant in Kentucky. The level of corruption here is astounding, yet with the DOJ having been corrupted by Trump and Bill Barr, who’s going to investigate McConnell’s criminal actions?
Democratic Strategist Adam Parkhomenko made an interesting point when he said that Kentucky’s new Democratic Governor Andy Beshear could take an interest in Mitch McConnell’s wheelings and dealings with the Russian oligarch. After all, McConnell appears to be conspiring with the Kremlin against the United States for his own corrupt gain.
Governor Beshear is inheriting a terrible mess in Kentucky. He’s tasked with restoring health care and voting rights to large swaths of the state’s population, amid various other messes created by Bevin. We’ll see if he makes a priority of exposing Mitch McConnell’s corrupt antics within the state or not. But if he does, then it could scandalize McConnell on a local level, at a time when his reelection prospects are already starting to look iffy.
