Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) takes great pride in being the self-proclaimed "Grim Reaper" of legislation — including legislation that has historically commanded strong bipartisan support, such as election security. Even in the wake of special counsel Robert Mueller's report detailing the sheer scope of the Russians' operations to undermine the 2016 presidential election, McConnell has killed multiple bills to safeguard the integrity of elections.
On MSNBC's "All In," Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) resoundingly condemned the Republican leader's disinterest in protecting democracy.
"[Former Secretary of State] Rex Tillerson was with your House counterparts yesterday," said host Chris Hayes. "Some of the reporting indicates he was telling them about the president's reluctance to take any measures to punish Russia for its interference and sabotage in the last election. And there are election security bills in the Senate that Mitch McConnell will not call for a vote. What's going on?"
"There's the opportunity to come together here," said Murphy. "And we've done it in the past — we passed a $300 million election security measure a few years ago. It actually did help make our elections more secure in 2018. But Republicans, for whatever reason, are not willing to do a seconds round of that funding."
"And given what we know has happened in Florida, given what we know the Russians are trying to do other places, we badly need this money in order to make sure that they don't play games again in 2020," said Murphy. "I can't explain why Republicans were for election security before they were against it. I don't want to believe the worst. But our job at securing elections is not done yet."
Watch below:
