One of the latest issues being pushed hard by the left is the alleged need for slavery reparations, and the predominately liberal media establishment has turned up the heat on Republican leaders in Congress in an effort to pressure them into supporting the idea, with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) being a favorite target.
However, McConnell remains unwilling to be shamed into support for reparations, and when asked recently by a reporter about that position given that his ancestors were slaveholders, McConnell offered a swift comparison between himself and Barack Obama that should have silenced all critics.
Digging into the past
NBC News recently conducted a deep-dive investigative report on Sen. McConnell’s ancestry and discovered that two of his great-great-grandfathers owned a combined total of 14 slaves — actually a smaller handful of actual slaves as well as their offspring — in the pre-Civil War days of the 1850s and into 1860.
The liberal media and Democratic left ran wild with the story for a couple of days with the transparent intent to smear McConnell as somehow still being in favor of slavery and with an ultimate goal of forcing him to support the recent calls from liberals for payment of slavery reparations.
NBC noted that McConnell had already made his thoughts on the idea of reparations abundantly clear in a news conference on June 18, when he said, “I don’t think reparations for something that happened 150 years ago, when none of us currently living are responsible, is a good idea.”
He added: “We’ve tried to deal with our original sin of slavery by fighting a civil war, bypassing landmark civil rights legislation. We’ve elected an African-American president.”
Effective comparison
Fast-forward to Tuesday, a day after the story about McConnell’s slave-owning ancestors was published, and it was apparent that the media were still determined to make this an issue to which the Senator would have to respond.
McConnell was asked during a news conference by a reporter, “Were you aware that your great-great-grandfathers were slave owners in Alabama before the Civil War, and has that revelation caused you to change your position on reparations?”
“You know, I find myself once again in the same position as President Obama,” McConnell replied. “We both oppose reparations and we both are the descendants of slave owners.”
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell confirms that he is a descendant of slave owners and reiterates that he still opposes government reparations for descendants of American slaves. https://t.co/qBgrX5NjGY pic.twitter.com/VRwAeiZS4N
— NBC News (@NBCNews) July 9, 2019
Partisan hypocrisy
This line of attack by the partisan media on the Republican leader — clearly implying that he should be held accountable and responsible for the actions of his ancestors more than 150 years ago — was as disgusting as it was ridiculous, but McConnell quite deftly, and humorously as well, flipped the script right back on the media by noting that their oh-so-adored former President Obama shares his position on reparations and also has slaveholding as part of his family history.
NBC News and all others who participated in this petty attack on McConnell should be deeply ashamed of themselves for displaying their bias so overtly. The only way the media can make this right is to conduct a genealogical review of each and every Democrat leader and 2020 presidential candidate to find out how many of them are descended from slave owners.
They won’t do that, however, because as McConnell’s response indicates, there is a strong likelihood that a significant number of Democrat Party heroes are in the same boat and are similarly descended from those who owned slaves over a century and a half ago.