Mitch McConnell is up to his old tricks as Americans push for change: columnist

According to the Daily Beast's Jackie Kucinich, anyone expecting Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) to assist Democrats in approving stricter limits on the purchase of high-powered weapons after the horrific mass slaughter at a Texas elementary school will likely be disappointed based upon his history of making promises and then disregarding them.

With polling showing an overwhelming majority of Americans favor further restrictions on the sale of guns, pressure is growing on Republicans to finally step up and help legislation, and following the mass shooting last week, McConnell told reporters he was "encouraged that Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) was negotiating with Democrats on the possibility of change.

However, Kucinich warns, McConnell has a long history of paying lip service to change when it comes to gun legislation and then moving on when the furor dies down.

As she wrote, "While it is notable that McConnell signaled his willingness to talk about changes to laws that regulate gun ownership in the United States, in McConnell’s case, it’s only a small step above immediately dismissing action on guns," adding, "Time and again, McConnell’s 'hope' for a bipartisan solution has simply prolonged the inevitable: inaction."

Case in point, McConnell's comments after the 2016 Florida Pulse nightclub mass shooting that ended with 49 dead and McConnell declaring, "We’re open to serious suggestions from the experts as to what we might be able to do to be helpful."

Proposed legislation never made it to the desk for a signature because McConnell led a GOP revolt against it.

"But when a bill that would have given the Department of Justice the ability to 'deny the transfer of firearms or the issuance of firearms and explosives licenses to known or suspected dangerous terrorists' was put for a vote, it failed along party lines with the exception of one vote. McConnell was one of the 53 Republican senators who voted no." Kucinich wrote before adding the same scenario played out again in 2019 after back-to-back mass casualty events at a Walmart in El Paso and a nightclub in Dayton.

Those tragic events led to McConnell to claim, "What we can’t do is fail to pass something."

Again, under President Donald nothing happened as McConnell quashed more legislation.

As the Beast's Kucinich notes, "McConnell’s habit of deferring to some theoretical, distant concept of a bipartisan solution has the same effect as politicians offering their 'thoughts and prayers' to victims—only it’s less recognizable as an empty gesture of change."

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