( CNN) Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell defended himself from withering criticism by Democrats and political commentatorsthat his blockade of election security legislation is un-American, calling it “modern-day McCarthyism.”
McConnell said that he has been tough on Russia for more than three decades, from supporting President Ronald Reagan's strategy on missile defence to greenlighting the bipartisan Senate investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 elections. He said Democrats and Republicans had spontaneously applauded at a closed-door meeting he helped set up a few weeks ago when officials discussed all the “progress” that had been stimulated since then. And he noted that he supported the hundreds of millions of dollars Congress has sent to the states to boost their election infrastructure.
“American pundits calling an American official treasonous because of a policy disagreement, ” McConnell said. “If anything is an asset to the Russians, it is disgusting behavior like that.”
