October 6, 2018

Mitch McConnell Just Called the Democrats’ Opposition to Kavanaugh “a Great Political Gift”

“I want to thank the mob.”

Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call/AP

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In advance of the Saturday’s Senate vote on Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) told the Washington Post he was grateful for the opposition to Kavanaugh from Democratic senators and protesters. “It’s been a great political gift for us. The tactics have energized our base,” he said, adding, “I want to thank the mob, because they’ve done the one thing we were having trouble doing, which was energizing our base.”

McConnell also said his faith in Kavanaugh never wavered: “When your integrity is attacked like his was, a withdrawal was certainly no solution to that, so we were in the fight to the finish.” 

So far, the right has largely praised McConnell’s work in handling the Kavanaugh nomination. Steve Bannon told Axios reporter Jonathan Swan, in a text message Friday night, that “Senator McConnell showed real leadership and the rest of the Senators real spine. This should stand as a lesson for the future—when Republican band together, stand up for the grassroots and take the fight to the Democrats and the opposition party media, America wins.”

Jonah Goldberg, a conservative columnist for the Los Angeles Times, called McConnell an “institutional fighter” and “the kind of guy who swims across a moat with a knife in his mouth.”

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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