Campaign Action
Congressional Democrats are using the testimony of former special counsel Robert Mueller before two House committees Wednesday to shine a bright light on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's blockade of legislation to secure elections from future interference.
"It has been almost 1,000 days since the U.S. intelligence community concluded that Russia interfered in our elections," the Democrats charge in a new report, "but instead of working with Democrats to improve the integrity of our democracy, Senator McConnell is blocking commonsense election security measures." This is part of his "decades-long effort to strike down any meaningful reforms to ensure fair elections," they write.
Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, pointed his finger at McConnell in a press conference highlighting their report Tuesday. "The only people that are stopping these kinds of common-sense measures from becoming law of the land are. […] Leader McConnell and President Trump." He continued, "'We're talking about low-hanging fruit that, if it came to the floor of the Senate, they would pass with close to 80-plus votes." Which is true as far as it goes, since there have been bipartisan efforts in both chambers to introduce legislation. Some of the legislation he referred to are bills that would require states to have back-up paper ballots and to conduct post-election audits, to impose sanctions on Russia if interferes again, and to require that campaigns notify law enforcement if they are contacted by foreign governments.
Sen. Dick Durbin, the minority whip, said that McConnell "is not afraid of the Russians. He's afraid of the United States Senate, a Republican-controlled Senate." He said that McConnell would "rather run the risk that we would have an election result that doesn't reflect a democratic vote" than allow legislation securing our elections. "That, to me, is a low point in the history of this country." Durbin and Warner are right in that the proposals put forward have had Republican support, but it could dry up on McConnell's orders. In fact, in response to the new charges from Democrats, it's possible that McConnell would allow legislation but force his team to stop it.
Adding force to the Democrats' charge, FBI director Christopher Wray testified to the Senate Judiciary Committee Tuesday that the "Russians are absolutely intent on trying to interfere with our elections." This is an immediate and serious threat, and McConnell is inviting it.
