Mitch McConnell on heckling at Louisville restaurant: ‘I will not be intimidated.’
In spite of harassment from a heckler who threw his wife’s to-go box out on the sidewalk, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says he enjoyed his dinner at a Louisville restaurant Friday night.
McConnell released an op-ed piece about the incident on Tuesday, saying “I’m not sure exactly what in my career suggests I would be easily swayed by such a spectacle. The reality is simple: I will not be intimidated.”
McConnell and his wife, Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao, were dining at Havana Rumba when McConnell said “a man came in off the street and rushed at us. Acting alone, he began shouting, slamming his fists on our table, and causing a disruption as others tried to eat.”
The scene was caught on video and the story picked up by multiple media outlets on Saturday.
“Almost immediately, the restaurant’s other customers began rejecting his harassment,” McConnell wrote. “They told him to quiet down or leave. A few men even approached the aggressor and escorted him to the exit.”
McConnell said he was “grateful to our fellow diners and the restaurant staff who helped end the disruption.”
McConnell says the larger problem beyond this incident is a “mob mentality that is being systematically fed and encouraged by the far left all across our nation.”
He pointed out threats made to Republican senators and their families during the recent confirmation process for Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
“The threats and intimidation are even being cheered on by prominent, leading Democrats,” McConnell wrote. “Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said there should be no civility until her party was back in power. Eric Holder, President Obama’s Attorney General, recently told a group that “when they go low, we kick ‘em. That’s what this new Democratic Party is about.”
McConnell said he appreciates hearing from people who engage in a “civil” manner, such as a social worker he said approached him and Chao to talk about the opiod crisis as they waited for a table at Havana Rumba.
“That’s how our government is supposed to work – with reasoned judgment and respect, not with intimidation and extreme mob behavior,” McConnell wrote. “It’s time for each of us to decide what kind of country we want. One side can continue to hurl mud, hatred, and toxic behavior until we reach a breaking point. Or, those with strong beliefs on both sides of an issue can speak up in a civil way.”