Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on Monday rallied to the defense of a new Georgia election law that President Joe Biden attacked as ‘Jim Crow on steroids’ – and issued a threat to ‘woke’ corporations who have begun lining up against it.
The state’s law, signed last month by Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, has become a battleground for Democratic charges of voter suppression as state legislatures around the country respond to former President Trump’s claim of election fraud with new restrictions on voter IDs and mail-in ballots.
‘The President has claimed repeatedly that state-level debates over voting procedures are worse than Jim Crow or ‘Jim Crow on steroids,’ the Kentucky Republican said in a blistering statement.
‘Nobody actually believes this. Nobody really thinks this current dispute comes anywhere near the horrific racist brutality of segregation. But there’s an old cynical saying that ‘history is just the set of lies agreed upon.’ And a host of powerful people and institutions apparently think they stand to benefit from parroting this big lie.’
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell came to the defense of a Georgia state election law Monday, and blasted President Joe Biden for comparing it to ‘Jim Crow on steroids’
McConnell adopted some of the populist rhetoric of Trump, saying: ‘We are witnessing a coordinated campaign by powerful and wealthy people to mislead and bully the American people.’
Complicating the fierce debate over the law are some of its substantive details. It shortens the time to apply for absentee ballots and sets up new requirements for it, while also requiring voters to write-in identifying information. Opponents say these new restrictions will confuse voters and caused ballots to be tossed.
It also cracks down on provisional ballots for people who go to the wrong polling place, and as Biden pointed out, outlaws organizations providing food or drinks to people waiting in line. It also gives more power over elections to the Republican-controlled legislature.
Republican Governor Brian Kemp signs the new election law S.B. 202, passed by the state legislature after Democrats picked up two Senate seats in the state. The law prompted Major League Baseball to pull out the All-Star game from the state
President Joe Biden called the law ‘Jim Crow on steroids,’ comparing it to some of the worst practices of black voter suppression. ‘Nobody actually believes this,’ McConnell said in response
Two demonstrators hold signs that read END THE FILIBUSTER and I STAND WITH PARK at a rally outside of Atlanta City Hall in support of Georgia State Representative Park Cannon, who was arrested on March 25. Cannon was arrested while knocking on the door of Gov. Brian Kemp’s office as he signed a sweeping voting rights bill into law; a bill that voting rights advocates say will limit voter access and disenfranchise Black voters
McConnell also issued a warning to ‘woke’ corporations. ‘Corporations will invite serious consequences if they become a vehicle for far-left mobs to hijack our country from outside the constitutional order. Businesses must not use economic blackmail to spread disinformation and push bad ideas that citizens reject at the ballot box,’ he said
But the law also expands some early voting, adding an additional Saturday, sets a minimum for drop boxes, and requires counties with long lines to invest to shorten them.
McConnell picked up his attack on Democratic efforts to pass nationwide legislation on voter access.
‘This disinformation has a purpose. Washington Democrats want to pass a sweeping bill that would let them rewrite all 50 states’ election laws and turn the Federal Election Commission into a Democrat-run partisan body. This power grab is impossible to defend, so the left wants to deflect. Instead of winning the debate, they want to silence debate by bullying citizens and entire states into submission.’
McConnell, who during his decades in the Senate has helped kill numerous campaign finance measures, also blasted corporations he said were being ‘bullied.’
Major League Baseball, Atlanta-based Coca-Cola, and Delta Airlines are among those who have registered disapproval of the new law, with baseball announcing it was moving its All Star Game out of the state.
‘It’s jaw-dropping to see powerful American institutions not just permit themselves to be bullied, but join in the bullying themselves. Wealthy corporations have no problem operating in New York, for example, which has fewer days of early voting than Georgia, requires excuses for absentee ballots, and restricts electioneering via refreshments. There is no consistent or factual standard being applied here. It’s just a fake narrative gaining speed by its own momentum,’ said McConnell.
‘Our private sector must stop taking cues from the Outrage-Industrial Complex. Americans do not need or want big business to amplify disinformation or react to every manufactured controversy with frantic left-wing signaling,’ he said.
‘From election law to environmentalism to radical social agendas to the Second Amendment, parts of the private sector keep dabbling in behaving like a woke parallel government,’ he said. ‘Corporations will invite serious consequences if they become a vehicle for far-left mobs to hijack our country from outside the constitutional order. Businesses must not use economic blackmail to spread disinformation and push bad ideas that citizens reject at the ballot box.’
McConnell’s attack came after Republicans lost their Senate majority and he lost his position as majority leader after Joe Biden won the White House and two Democrats prevailed in Georgia runoff elections.
He has also warned of dire consequences should Democrats act to end the legislative filibuster, which allows a minority in the Senate to kill legislation.
McConnell’s statement comes after Trump over the weekend went after firms who have lined up against the law – and called for his own boycott on a range of companies.
‘For years the Radical Left Democrats have played dirty by boycotting products when anything from that company is done or stated in any way that offends them,’ Trump wrote. ‘Now they are going big time with WOKE CANCEL CULTURE and our sacred elections. It is finally time for Republicans and Conservatives to fight back—we have more people than they do—by far! Boycott Major League Baseball, Coca-Cola, Delta Airlines, JPMorgan Chase, ViacomCBS, Citigroup, Cisco, UPS, and Merck.’
Trump also repeated his unsubstantiated claims that the election was rigged and that he won it.
‘They rigged and stole our 2020 Presidential Election, which we won by a landslide, and then, on top of that, boycott and scare companies into submission. Never submit, never give up! The Radical Left will destroy our Country if we let them. We will not become a Socialist Nation. Happy Easter!’ he wrote.
Amid the uproar and ‘cancel culture’ charges, eight Georgia Republicans wrote Coca-Cola and announced that they were getting rid of Coke products in their offices.
‘Given Coke’s choice to cave to the pressure of an out of control cancel culture, we respectfully request all Coca-Cola Company products be removed from our office suite immediately,’ the Republicans wrote.
‘Should Coke choose to read the bill, share its true intentions and accept their role in the dissemination of mistruths, we would welcome a conversation to rebuild a working relationship,’ they added.
