House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is trying to do to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell what the rest of the Democratic Party did to President Trump in 2016: discredit and dismiss him as a Russian “accomplice.”
When asked about Russia’s reported attempts to interfere in the 2020 election, Pelosi told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos on Sunday that Trump, McConnell, and the rest of the GOP are “in complete denial” — and that perhaps this denial is intentional.
“As I have said, in terms of this president, all roads lead to Putin,” Pelosi said. “Sometimes I wonder about Mitch McConnell too. What’s he — why is he an accomplice to all of that? He has resisted sources going in a manner commensurate with the threat for state agencies, whichever they are in a state, could be the secretary of state or whatever, to protect our infrastructure, our critical infrastructure of elections.”
The accusation that Trump worked with the Kremlin to steal the 2016 election is not only tired; it’s false. The Mueller report proved as much, yet Pelosi still insists on pushing a debunked narrative. And now she’s trying to tie McConnell to it, too.
A few things can be true: Russia did interfere in the 2016 election, but its attempts to sway public opinion had little real effect, according to the U.S. intelligence community. And the Kremlin is trying to interfere once again, according to U.S. intelligence officials, who are now launching a probe to determine whether Russia is targeting former Vice President Joe Biden by pointing to his past involvement with Ukraine.
Neither of these facts mean that Trump or McConnell are complicit. It took a three-year investigation, dozens of congressional testimonies, and thousands of taxpayer dollars to prove that Trump had not colluded with Putin, and no amount of speculation will change that conclusion. The Mueller report’s exoneration is why McConnell blocked the Democrats’ election security bills last summer — a decision that earned him the Democratic nickname “Moscow Mitch.”
McConnell’s stonewalling is certainly worth criticism. Russian interference is a serious matter, and the bipartisan bills introduced to address this issue should have been taken more seriously. But McConnell’s criticism of the legislation was directed at one bill, in particular, the FIRE Act, which would have required all political campaigns to report contact from a foreign government to the FBI. The bill clearly had the Trump campaign in mind, and passing it would have given credibility to the Democrats’ false accusation against the president.
McConnell was doing his job, and now Pelosi needs to do hers. She might disapprove of McConnell’s decision to block the election security bills, but she can do so without questioning his loyalty. It is indeed possible to dislike a person without labeling them a Russian “accomplice.” Pelosi would be wise to keep that in mind.
