House and Senate Democrats on Tuesday used the pending testimony from former special counsel Robert Mueller to launch a full-scale assault on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell over his ongoing efforts to block congressional efforts to pass election security legislation.
“The only people that are stopping these kinds of common-sense measures from becoming law of the land are … leader McConnell and President Trump,” Sen.
Mark Warner of Virginia, the Senate Intelligence Committee’s top Democrat, said during a Capitol Hill press conference.While Republicans and Democrats alike have attempted to pass a variety of legislation to improve election security over the past two years in response to Russian interference, McConnell has repeatedly stood in the way of the bills and argued against the need for a greater federal role to protect voting.
“We’re talking about low-hanging fruit that, if it came to the floor of the Senate, they would pass with close to 80-plus votes,” he added, referencing previously introduced measures that would require states to use paper ballots and conduct post-election audits, impose sanctions on Russia if it attempted to interfere again and mandate that campaigns contact law enforcement if contacted by a foreign power.
When it comes to election security, McConnell “is not afraid of the Russians. He's afraid of the United States Senate, a Republican-controlled Senate,” according to Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.).
McConnell would "rather run the risk that we would have an election result that doesn't reflect a democratic vote" than tackle the issue, he said. "That, to me, is a low point in the history of this country.
”The criticism comes as the country prepares for Mueller’s long-awaited congressional testimony about his investigation into Russia’s interference into the 2016 election.
The final 448-page report, issued in April, concluded that Moscow “interfered in the 2016 presidential election in sweeping and systematic fashion.” Mueller himself emphasized the need to address the nation’s election security gaps before 2020 during a brief press conference last month, saying “that allegation deserves the attention of every American.”
Tuesday’s press conference also coincided with testimony by FBI Director Christopher Wray, who told the Senate Judiciary Committee that the Russians “are absolutely intent on trying to interfere with our elections.”
But McConnell has argued that Washington doesn’t need to take further action to shore up the nation’s election systems ahead of next year’s presidential vote. Earlier this month, he dismissed the need for a classified meeting on the issue before senior Trump administration officials briefed lawmakers on election security efforts. He has also accused Democrats of making election security a political issue.
On Tuesday, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), the ranking member on the Senate Rules Committee, recalled that McConnell “tried to shut me down” during the briefing when she mentioned her bill about online political ad transparency, arguing it was a “campaign finance matter.”
Rep. John Sarbanes (D-Md.), who chairs the House Democracy Reform Task Force, said the chamber had tried to accommodate McConnell by breaking out the ballot box security provisions from a larger measure that was a grab-bag of election reform efforts.
But now “that’s piling up on the Senate side against the door that Mitch McConnell has barred when it comes to protecting our democracy,” Sarbanes said, noting that last month the House passed a Democrat-backed bill that would require election systems to use voter-verified paper ballots.
“The alarm bells are going off, the lights are flashing and Mitch McConnell is blithely sleepwalking through it all,” he said.
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), a member of the Intelligence Committee, predicted that a “host” of foreign nations will look to interfere in 2020 and that local and state officials “don’t have the funds” to fend off such an onslaught.
He said that he and other Democrats would act as “election security Paul Reveres” over the August recess to warn of the looming threats.
Warner, whose committee has been investigating Moscow’s 2016 meddling for more than two years, said the panel would soon issue a report on election security that would detail what Russia did and suggest how to fix the vulnerabilities through legislation.
The document will be the first of five the committee intends to release, he said, adding that an announcement will be made later on Tuesday or Wednesday with additional details.
Article originally published on POLITICO Magazine