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Opinion – Bill Straub: McConnell endorses the Rapist; can’t help but wonder what’s gone wrong


It’s finally official – the heralded and brilliant Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell thinks The Rapist should be elected president of the United States.

Hyperbole? Think again. A duly constituted jury in the state of New York, sitting in judgment at a civil trial, concluded that some time in late 1995 or early 1996, one Donald J. Trump, the once and, perhaps, future leader of this nation, sexually assaulted columnist E. Jean Carroll in a dressing room at the Bergdorf Goodman department store in Manhattan by forcefully kissing her, pulling down her tights and raping her before she managed to escape.

The NKyTribune’s Washington columnist Bill Straub served 11 years as the Frankfort Bureau chief for The Kentucky Post. He also is the former White House/political correspondent for Scripps Howard News Service. A member of the Kentucky Journalism Hall of Fame, he currently resides in Silver Spring, Maryland, and writes frequently about the federal government and politics. Email him at williamgstraub@gmail.com

In a subsequent related action, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan rejected Trump’s claim that the jury of six males and three females failed to determine that he actually raped Carroll.

“The finding that Ms. Carroll failed to prove that she was ‘raped’ within the meaning of the New York Penal Law does not mean that she failed to prove that Mr. Trump ‘raped’ her as many people commonly understand the word ‘rape,’” Kaplan wrote, adding, “Indeed, as the evidence at trial recounted below makes clear, the jury found that Mr. Trump in fact did exactly that.”

So, after weeks of hemming and hawing and the sort of aw shucksing he is noted for, the 82-year-old McConnell, of Louisville, finally got around to endorsing The Rapist, the same man who has vilified him countless times, who made racist remarks about his wife, Elaine Chao, and who demanded that McConnell be removed from his position as Senate Republican leader.

McConnell did Trump a favor by announcing plans to step down from the leadership post after the November election. Thereafter he offered his personal endorsement despite Trump having characterized him as a “dumb son-of-a-bitch” and “an old, broken-down crow.”

Mitch essentially begged of The Rapist, “Please, sir, may I have another.”

“It is abundantly clear that former President Trump has earned the requisite support of Republican voters to be our nominee for President of the United States,” McConnell said this week in a statement to The Washington Post. “It should come as no surprise that as nominee, he will have my support. During his presidency, we
worked together to accomplish great things for the American people including tax reform that supercharged our economy and a generational change of our federal judiciary — most importantly, the Supreme Court. I look forward to the opportunity of switching from playing defense against the terrible policies the Biden administration has pursued to a sustained offense geared towards making a real difference in improving the lives of the American people.”

McConnell was right about one thing — his endorsement comes as no surprise because he possesses neither common decency or courage. He is a walking, talking humiliation from head to toe, a man who exemplifies placing party before honor and country.

Kneeling down at the alter of The Rapist, kissing his ring. It just doesn’t get any more disgraceful than that. It calls to mind a scene from the 1997 film The Rainmaker, featuring a young lawyer played by Matt Damon confronting a corporate lawyer representing a corrupt insurance company by asking, “I’m just wonderin’; — do you even remember when you first sold out?”

Mitch doesn’t have a clue.

If anyone wants to see the real McConnell, check out his one-on-one interview in April 22 with Jonathan Swan of The New York Times, who does an extraordinary job of drawing McConnell out and showing just what a hollow man he really is. Swan simply asked McConnell during the session where he draws his “moral, red
lines.” McConnell said he was “very comfortable” with his self-imposed boundaries but — despite Swan’s enviable persistence – we’re still waiting to determine what they might be.

Probably because they don’t exist.

Swan cited a speech McConnell delivered after the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection infamously ignited by Trump in his efforts to overturn the election he lost by about 7 million votes to President Biden, saying Trump’s actions were a “disgraceful dereliction of duty” and that he was “practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of that day.”

“How do you go from saying that to two weeks later saying you’d absolutely support Donald Trump if he is the Republican nominee in 2024?” Swan asked.

McConnell responded, “As the Republican leader of the Senate it should not be a frontpage headline that I will support the Republican nominee for president…”

“After you said that about him? I think it’s astonishing,” Swan said.

McConnell continued, saying he had an “obligation” to support the party’s nominee and he stands by both his post-Jan. 6 remarks and his support for The Rapist.

“Because I don’t get to pick the Republican nominee for president,” McConnell said, obviously irritated. “They’re elected by the Republican voters all over the country.”

Swan cited former Rep. Liz Cheney, R-WY, who, he said, maintains the same view of Trump and Jan. 6 as enunciated by McConnell, but who said “she doesn’t want Donald Trump anywhere near the White House and she’s going to work to make that not happen because she thinks there’s some things more important than party loyalty.”

“Well, maybe you ought to be talking to Liz Cheney,” McConnell said, basically substantiating the criticism he places party before country.

“Is there any threshold for you…” Swan asked before McConnell jumped in.

“I say many things I’m sure people don’t understand,” McConnell said.

McConnell — the Jonathan Swan interview. Click the image to listen to the full interview (Screencapture)

Here is the clip:
https://x.com/jonathanvswan/status/1765401118731886718?s=20

It’s one of the most damning political confrontations you’re ever likely to see.

McConnell refuses to cite any red line he might cross and that party loyalty supersedes all other considerations, even if the candidate is willing to let Ukraine die on the vine, kill NATO, allow the businesses he operates in New York to engage in fraud and reel off racist and bigoted comments as if he’s reading a grocery list.

Oh, and rape a woman, not to mention being caught on tape some years back saying the way he approaches women is to “grab them by the p—y.”

This is the man Addison Mitchell McConnell wants to return as president of the United States.

Swan was right. It’s astonishing.

Mitch isn’t alone in this culture of ignominy. Rep. Andy Barr, R-Lexington, who is so rabid about gaining Trump’s support for a Senate run if McConnell retires that he’s frothing at the mouth, held a fundraiser for the GOP’s all-but certain presidential candidate with Donald Trump Jr. on hand, leading bookmakers to set
an over/under on the IQ of the hosts.

Take the under.

Folks like McConnell and Barr set a bad enough example. But come November, more than 70 million Americans likely will find their way to the polls or mail in their ballots favoring a man who has not only raped a woman but brought politics and the nation’s everyday culture to the bottom of the Mariana Trench. There’s no describing the damage this one man has done to our country yet people are eating it up and, if the election were held today, he would probably win.

It’s a good time to remember the words of Paul Simon in American Tune:

For we lived so well so long
Still, when I think of the road we're traveling on
I wonder what’s gone wrong
I can’t help it, I wonder what’s gone wrong


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