Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) on Tuesday refused to condemn the President of the United States for sending racist tweets in which he told four non-white congresswomen to "go back" to their countries of origin.
McConnell spoke on the matter at a press conference, but he did not explicitly rebuke President Donald Trump.
"There's been a lot of discussion about the events of the last couple days, I'd like to address it myself," McConnell volunteered. "I think there's been a consensus that political rhetoric has really gotten way way overheated all across the political spectrum."
McConnell then launched an attack on the same Democratic congresswomen -- Ilhan Omar (MN), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY), Ayanna Pressley (MA) and Rashida Tlaib (MI) -- who withstood the racist tweets from Trump.
"We've heard facilities on the U.S. Border called concentration camps," McConnell said of Ocasio-Cortez. "We've seen the far left make accusations of racism. Anyone who degrees with them on anything, including the Speaker of the House."
The Majority Leader went on to name other alleged infractions from the four congresswomen.
"We've seen a freshman congresswoman use antisemitic tropes," he opined. "The most vile accusations and insults against our nation have become incredibly routine. And we've seen a back-and-forth the past few days."
Before concluding, McConnell mentioned "the president."
"From the president to the Speaker, to the freshmen members of the House," he remarked, "all of us have a responsibility to elevate the public discourse. Our words do matter, we all know politics is a contact support. But it's about time we lowered the temperature all across the board. All of us ought to contribute to a better level of discourse."
