On Friday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, was confronted by a group of customers in a restaurant while eating dinner with his wife, Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao.
The couple were dining at Havana Rumba, a Cuban restaurant, in Louisville, Kentucky, when several customers reportedly confronted McConnell. Only part of the entire interaction was captured on video.
Casey Leek, a customer of the restaurant, told The Louisville Courier-Journal that first, a woman confronted the senator, called him a “traitor,” and other diners clapped and cheered. Leek also claims that a man took McConnell's to-go box from his table, opened the restaurant’s door, and tossed the food on the sidewalk.
One of what was allegedly a group of four men (only this man was captured in the viral video) yelled, “Why don't you get out of here? Why don't you leave the entire country?"
In speaking directly to other customers, he said, “They’re going to come for your Social Security,” likely referring to when McConnell said that programs including Social Security need to be cut in order to make up for the Trump administration’ s enormous budget deficient, which sits at the highest in six years, at $779 billion.
In the video, other diners chime in, some encouraging the guys to back off the senator. Some apparently just want to have dinner without drama, as in the video, you can hear a woman simply say, “Check!”
This part of the interaction was caught on video, released by TMZ on Saturday morning:
McConnell has yet to release a direct statement, but his press secretary Stephanie Penn told WLKY the following:
"The leader and Secretary Chao enjoyed their meal in Louisville last night and they appreciate those who spoke up against incivility. They hope other patrons weren't too inconvenienced by left-wing tantrums. As the leader often says, the Senate will not be intimidated by the antics of far-left protesters."
The assumption that the group associated themselves with the “far-left” or were “protestors” of anything (McConnell himself? The Trump administration? Policies which can actively harm the country?) is pretty telling.
It suggests that these people were not just communicating their personal views and frustrations, but that they were agents of a larger, nefarious movement, sent intentionally to ruin McConnell’s dinner.
Dismissing concerned individuals as “far-left protestors” and calling their expressions “tantrums” and “antics” are loaded, and likely intentionally dismissive, word choices, especially in an official statement.
With the midterms so close, it’s possible McConnell’s team is hoping to use this interaction as a means of building sympathy for him. Perhaps they are hoping that otherwise moderate voters will side with the seemingly innocent senator who just wants to eat a meal with his wife?
People have a lot of opinions on whether or not government officials are “fair game” to approach in public:
In the video, McConnell appears not to respond. This isn’t the first time he’s been confronted while out and about; earlier this very month, he was confronted in Washington’s Reagan National Airport over his role in Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court confirmation.
Hopefully he, and other elected officials, aren’t just zoning out while constituents advocate for their rights.
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