McConnell Is The Republican Leader In Hypocrisy

Senator Mitch McConnell’s opposition to Judge Jackson is not surprising, and neither is his blatant hypocrisy. McConnell has a deep history of utilizing dark money when it benefitted him and has repeatedly supported judges with similar sentencing records as Judge Jackson.

Not only was Mitch McConnell supportive of the tens of millions of dark money conservative groups spent to confirm Trump’s Supreme Court nominees, he’s been a long-time opponent of campaign finance reform:

NBC News’s Sahil Kapur: “As McConnell and other Republicans rail against left-wing dark money, I asked if he’d favor new laws to require disclosure. Answer: No”

Mother Jones: “The irony of this line of attack is that McConnell has been on a crusade to allow more dark money in politics for decades. His name captions the first Supreme Court case challenging the McCain-Feingold campaign-finance reform legislation, which attempted to rein in the flood of anonymous corporate donations in politics, and he openly supported the 2010 Citizens United decision that ultimately invalidated that landmark legislation.”

Washington Post: “At a time when Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell are rapidly reshaping federal courts by installing conservative judges and Supreme Court justices, few people outside government have more influence over judicial appointments now than Leo. … Even as Leo counseled Trump on judicial picks, he and his allies were raising money for nonprofits that under IRS rules do not have to disclose their donors. Between 2014 and 2017 alone, they collected more than $250 million in such donations, sometimes known as ‘dark money,’ according to a Post analysis of the most recent tax filings available.”

Mitch McConnell and Senate Republicans unanimously supported Donald Trump’s nominees who have similar sentencing records to the record they criticized from Judge Jackson: 

Washington Post: “These Trump judges failed Hawley’s sentencing test for Jackson”

ABC News: “An ABC News review of federal judges appointed and confirmed during the Trump administration found nearly a dozen had handed down below-guideline sentences in cases of defendants viewing, possessing, transporting or distributing child pornography.”

Mitch McConnell had no issue voting to confirm judges who served with Judge Jackson on the U.S. Sentencing Commission and voted to lower sentences:

ABC News: “Hawley accused Jackson of advocating ‘for drastic change’ in sex offender sentencing by eliminating mandatory minimum sentences for child porn while on the Commission. But he failed to mention that the panel’s Republican appointees – including Judge Friedrich – also supported revising the sentences in a unanimous vote.”

CNN: “Republicans might point to the fact that a seven-member body of Sentencing Commission unanimously decided to lower federal drug sentences. But Democrats will be quick to point out that one of the commissioners was Judge William H. Pryor Jr., a conservative judge who sits on the 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals. Another was Judge Dabney L. Friedrich whom Trump went on to nominate to United States District Court for the District of Columbia.”

McConnell voted to confirm William H. Pryor Jr. To The 11th Circuit Court.

McConnell voted to confirm Dabney L. Friedrich As A U.S. District Judge For DC.

###