NBC uses census records from 1800s to shame McConnell into supporting reparations

NBC News reported on Monday that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Kentucky, was a descendant of two men who owned slaves in the mid-1800s. The issue of whether or not the United States government should pay reparations to the descendants of slaves has been a hotly contested issue with McConnell being firmly against the notion.

McConnell has said of the possibility of financially compensating the descendants of slaves, “I don’t think reparations for something that happened 150 years ago, when none of us currently living are responsible, is a good idea … We’ve tried to deal with our original sin of slavery by fighting a civil war, by passing landmark civil rights legislation. We’ve elected an African American president.”