‘No honor.’ McGrath slams McConnell for effort to fill Ginsburg’s Supreme Court seat.
Amy McGrath, the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in Kentucky, said U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell’s effort to push through the confirmation of a Supreme Court nominee less than 50 days before the election exemplifies why she’s running against him.
“Enough is enough,” McGrath told reporters in Lexington Tuesday. “The man has no principles, has no honor. It’s all about himself, it’s all about his power. And if you think about it, it’s part of the bigger picture. It was never about us, it was never about Kentucky, it was never about Republican or conservative principles, it was never about anything but his own power.”
McGrath was making a lightly-attended campaign stop in the parking lot of Whitaker Bank Ballpark, where a group of staffers set up a table to register people to vote as part of a statewide voter registration drive for National Voter Registration Day.
It appears likely that McConnell has enough support among Republican Senators to press forward with the Senate confirmation process as soon as President Donald Trump names a nominee to replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg later this week.
McGrath questioned McConnell’s priorities in the Senate, highlighting Congress’ inability to pass the latest COVID-19 economic relief package.
“We still need a relief package,” McGrath said. “He’s not working on that, he’s just simply working on pushing through a Supreme Court nominee in direct contrast to what he said four years ago that he would do.”
Any COVID-19 relief package would require a vote in both the House of Representatives and the Senate, while only the Senate, where Republicans have a majority, must vote on a Supreme Court nominee.
“Amy McGrath needs remedial civics,” said Katharine Cooksey, McConnell’s spokeswoman. “Her Washington Democrat bosses twice-blocked Senator McConnell’s coronavirus rescue package aimed at helping kids and teachers returning to classrooms, struggling small businesses and unemployed Americans.”
McConnell has pushed back at Democratic cries that he is being hypocritical because he blocked confirmation hearings in 2016 for former President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee, Merrick Garland, citing the fact that it was an election year. He has called that decision, which may have helped Trump win the 2016 election, one of the most consequential in his political career.
McConnell has said circumstances are different in 2020 because the presidency and the Senate were controlled by different parties in 2016.
“If we go on to confirm this nomination after a careful process, then both in 2016 and in 2020, this Senate will simply have provided the typical, normal outcome in each scenario,” McConnell said Monday on the Senate floor. “Think about that fact — and then then weigh it against the outcry and hysteria that is already erupting from the far left.”
McGrath has struggled to gain traction against McConnell in a state President Donald Trump won by 30 percentage points in 2016. But in a rather unusual election year, McGrath’s campaign is hoping that increased voting access and a craving for normalcy may help push her over the edge.
“I think that people are so tired of a dysfunctional system,” McGrath said. “They are so tired of a man who has no principles who goes to Washington and is all about himself.”
There were few people at McGrath’s Lexington campaign stop Tuesday.
A veteran wearing a blue jean jacket showed up to chat with McGrath. They talked about being in the Marines and she handed him a challenge coin that she gives to veterans when she sees them. Two women brought lawn chairs and set them up in the parking lot for the chance to see the candidate.
Many of the defining events of 2020 — from the ongoing protests over the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor to the contentious battle over the Supreme Court seat — have proven to be polarizing. And polarization in a state where conservatives have long had an advantage in federal elections does not bode well for McGrath.
When asked how she would navigate the increased polarization when much of her campaign has focused on winning over political moderates, McGrath fell into a talking point about the issue not being about “left and right” or “red and blue.”
“What kind of Democracy do we have now?” McGrath said. “It’s just basically a banana republic where anybody in power gets to change the rules at any time. People don’t want that.”
