Here’s why the #MoscowMitch nickname is so devastating for Mitch McConnell

The "Moscow Mitch" moniker bestowed on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) could stick, the panel on MSNBC's "Deadline: White House" explained on Friday.

Guest host John Heilemann played a clip of MSNBC's Joe Scarborough -- who was once a Republican congressman -- going off on the GOP Senate leader.

"He is aiding and abetting Vladimir Putin’s ongoing attempts to subvert American democracy -- according to the Republican FBI, CIA, DNI, Intel committee -- all Republicans are all saying Russia is subverting American democracy and Moscow Mitch won’t even let the Senate take a vote on it!" Scarborough said. "That is un-American."

"Un-American?" Heilemann asked.

"Absolutely." the Rev. Al Sharpton replied.

"Donald Trump, Mitch McConnell and the Republicans had tried to convince the American public there was this massive voter fraud. They had people feeling that they were going to steal the election," Sharpton explained. "Now they’re the ones that are going to shut down looking at any possibility of the fraud?"

"Clearly, they have set the table for Russia to continue to do what they want to do and I think not only Democrats but those of us in the civil rights and voting rights community are very concerned about it. When you have been talking about people at the polls trying to propose something, all they need is one disturbance to overturn a whole precinct’s vote. That’s extremely dangerous," he warned.

Veteran newsman Dan Rather also believed the nickname could stick.

"What is the deal here? Is Mitch McConnell in the back pocket of a fully bankrupt and corrupt Donald Trump?" Heilemann asked.

"Mitch McConnell, since Donald Trump has taken office, has taken the role of protecting this president at all costs, having a Republican in the White House to Mcconnell is more important than anything else," WBUR's Kimberly Atkins replied.

"We know, one, that from the moment he got into the White House and even before, Donald Trump didn’t want to talk about Russia for many reasons, one of which was it made it seem as if that cast some doubt over the legitimacy of his presidency and he was very concerned about that and he wanted to downplay Russia," she explained.

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