Terrorism

McConnell On Casey Anthony Trial: It Means Terrorists Could Win

Ryan J. Reilly | July 11, 2011, 1:15PM

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Casey Anthony

The top Republican in the Senate invoked the high-profile acquittal of Casey Anthony on charges she murdered her daughter as a reason to oppose the use of civilian trials for terrorism suspects.

"These are not American citizens. We just found with the Caylee Anthony case how difficult is to get a conviction in a U.S. court," Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said on "Fox News Sunday." McConnell has called on the Obama administration to place suspected terrorists in Guantanamo Bay and prosecute them in the military justice system.

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Justice Department

DOJ Says McConnell Distorted Holder's Comments On Use Of Courts To Fight Terror

Ryan J. Reilly | June 22, 2011, 11:25AM

The Justice Department is accusing Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of taking out of context comments by Attorney General Eric Holder's about using the civilian court system to try terrorism suspects.

McConnell, in an op-ed for the Washington Post, accused Holder of making an "audacious" claim about the war on terrorism during his speech before the American Constitution Society last week.

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Don't Ask Don't Tell

McConnell: McCain Is Right On DADT (VIDEO)

Rachel Slajda | December 6, 2010, 9:26AM

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY).

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell will follow Sen. John McCain's lead on Don't Ask, Don't Tell repeal, he said this weekend on "Meet The Press."

McCain, the ranking member on the Armed Services Committee, spent much of last week's repeal hearings railing against a Pentagon report that the policy can be repealed with minimal damage.

McCain has vowed to block the bill from coming to the floor until more hearings are held.

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American Family Association

Top Social Conservative: 'No More Mosques, Period'

Jillian Rayfield | August 11, 2010, 1:02PM

Bryan Fischer

Bryan Fischer, the "Director of Issues Analysis" for the American Family Association, wrote a blog post yesterday on the AFA's site arguing that the United States should have "no more mosques, period."

"This is for one simple reason," he writes. "Each Islamic mosque is dedicated to the overthrow of the American government."

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Charles Rangel

NYT: Lawmakers, Besides Rangel, Had Endowments Funded By Corporations

Rachel Slajda | August 6, 2010, 10:24AM

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY)

The New York Times reports today that many lawmakers in addition to embatted Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY) have educational endowments in their honor heavily funded by corporations with business before Congress.

Although their spokesmen deny any similarity, the endowments have echoes of the Rangel Center, the CCNY educational center at the center of alleged ethics charges against Rangel.

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Rand Paul

Paul Slams MSNBC 'Bias' (VIDEO)

Zachary Roth | May 24, 2010, 9:51AM

KY-SEN candidate Rand Paul (R)

On the advice of Karl Rove, Rand Paul has been staying away from national interviews since his disastrous appearance on MSNBC last Wednesday, in which he suggested he opposed a key provision of the Civil Rights Act. But he hasn't shut out local media. And in an interview with a Kentucky TV station Friday, the GOP Senate candidate continued his damage control campaign.

Paul downplayed his comments to Rachel Maddow, saying they were part of "a philosophic debate about a moot point." But he also blasted MSNBC for "bias," charging that in the days after his appearance, commentators on the network had inaccurately accused him of wanting to repeal the Civil Rights Act. (On Thursday, MSNBC's Chris Matthews corrected that error.) "I need to be very careful about going on certain networks that seem to have a bias," Paul told WHS's Joe Arnold. "Because it really wasn't the interview so much that was unfair. The interview I think was very fair. But then they went on a whole day repeating something over and over again. It makes me less inclined to go on a network."

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Stop Too Big To Fail

Shady Anti-Financial Reform Outfit Cites Robert Reich In New Ad (VIDEO)

Justin Elliott | April 27, 2010, 12:50PM

A screen shot from a Stop Too Big To Fail ad featuring former Labor Secretary Robert Reich

The shady anti-financial reform group Stop Too Big To Fail today announced a new TV advertising push in three key states that features an out-of-context quote from former Labor Secretary Robert Reich to bolster its case to kill financial reform.

As TPMmuckraker has reported, Stop Too Big To Fail is the project of a veteran astroturf operation called Consumers for Competitive Choice, and it's using the services of an ad agency that worked with the Swift Boat Vets For Truth in 2004. It has already spent $1.6 million on anti-reform ads and won't say who's funding the group's efforts.

Stop Too Big To Fail previously featured progressive economist Simon Johnson on one of its media conference calls before he realized the goals of the outfit and demanded it stop using his name. Now, Stop Too Big To Fail has turned to using Reich to add credibility to a message designed to sound progressive, while in fact advocating to kill the financial reform legislation.

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Toyota

Toyota's Deep American Roots Could Help It Weather Crisis

Zachary Roth | February 19, 2010, 2:14PM

Toyota Motor Corp. President Akio Toyoda

Next week, Toyota's president, Akio Toyoda, will fly across the world to appear before Congress in a bid to explain quality problems that since last fall have led to nearly 8 million recalls -- and perhaps several deadly crashes. Meanwhile, the company's main competitor in the domestic market, General Motors, is now largely owned by the U.S. government.

That's prompted some observers on both sides of the Pacific to paint the controversy as a 1980s-style showdown between the Stars and Stripes and the Land of the Rising Sun.

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Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab

The Obama-GOP Miranda Showdown: Everything You Think You Know Is Wrong

Justin Elliott | February 10, 2010, 11:12AM

Sen. Kit Bond (R-MO), Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-MI), and Deputy National Security Advisor John Brennan (inset)

On close scrutiny, this week's intense debate over Miranda rights for Umar Abdulmutallab -- culminating in GOP calls for a top Obama aide to resign -- largely falls apart.

The key point of dispute -- whether four Republican leaders should have assumed that the Christmas bombing suspect had been Mirandized after a phone call from Obama aide John Brennan, in which the GOPers were told that Abdulmutallab was in FBI custody -- is moot in light of the facts of the case.

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Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab

Top Republicans Don't Dispute They Were Told Xmas Bomber Was Held By FBI

Justin Elliott | February 8, 2010, 4:02PM

National Security Adviser John Brennan with (clockwise from top left) Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-MI), Rep. John Boehner (R-OH), Sen. Kit Bond (R-MO), and Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY)

There's a key point in danger of being lost in all the he-said-he-said froth over what Congressional Republicans were told in the hours after the failed Christmas attack: none of the GOP leaders disputes that an Obama aide informed them that suspect Umar Abdulmutallab was being held in FBI custody.

The real dispute is over what flows from that fact. John Brennan, Obama's national security adviser, said on Meet The Press Sunday that he called four Republicans -- Sens. Mitch McConnell and Kit Bond and Reps. John Boehner and Pete Hoekstra -- the night of the attempted Christmas attack.

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Campaign Contributions

Defense Contractor Will Plead Guilty On False Statements Charge

Zachary Roth | February 5, 2010, 2:35PM

A politically connected British defense contractor has agreed to plead guilty to having misled the government about payments that may have been used to help win contracts Saudi Arabia, the Justice Department has announced.

In a joint agreement with the U.S. and U.K., BAE Systems will pay a $400 million fine.

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Obama Administration

Holder To GOP: We're Simply Doing What Bush Did

Justin Elliott | February 3, 2010, 2:24PM

Attorney General Eric Holder

In a letter to Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Attorney General Eric Holder is continuing the push back against GOP attacks on the Obama Administration's decision to handle Umar Abdulmutallab in American courts.

"Since the September 11, 2001 attacks, the practice of the U.S. government,
followed by prior and current Administrations without a single exception, has been to
arrest and detain under federal criminal law all terrorist suspects who are apprehended
inside the United States," Holder writes (emphasis in original).

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Mitch McConnell

McConnell Raised Big Bucks From Foreign Defense Contractor Probed For Bribery

Zachary Roth | February 3, 2010, 1:15PM

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY).

In the wake of the Supreme Court's Citizens United ruling, Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has been quick to denounce a bid by Democrats to stop foreign corporations from pouring money into U.S. elections, claiming current law already bars such spending. As we've reported before, it's not nearly as simple as that -- but McConnell should know: The GOP Senate leader has raked in campaign cash from a subsidiary of a major foreign defense contractor that's currently being investigated by the Justice Department for bribery.

As we reported yesterday, McConnell, a longtime foe of efforts to get money out of politics, last week took to the Senate floor to pooh-pooh the notion that the court's decision could allow a flood of foreign money to sway our elections, citing an existing law that prevents foreign nationals, including corporations, from spending on U.S. elections. But that ban doesn't cover the U.S. subsidiaries of foreign companies, or to foreign-owned corporations that incorporate in the U.S.

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Mitch McConnell

McConnell Fighting Effort To Block Political Spending By Foreign Corporations

Zachary Roth | February 2, 2010, 3:40PM

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY).

You'd think that if there were one Democratic initiative that Republicans in Congress might be bashful about opposing -- especially given the current anti-corporate climate in the country -- it would be a bid to stop foreign corporations from pouring money into our elections.

You'd be wrong. In fact, they're willing to stand up in support of those foreign corporations' right to do so.

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Health Care

Republican Leaders Rush to Defend Insurer Humana from "Gag Order"

Brian Beutler | September 22, 2009, 4:50PM

Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY)

As Zack noted in great detail here, the Obama administration is investigating the activities of health insurance giant Humana--a participant in Medicare Advantage that's been telling its aging consumers that the government plans to slash benefits, and urging them to tell Congress not to touch the program as it reforms the U.S. health care system.

Medicare Advantage plans are private health care plans that seniors can buy into with federal assistance in lieu of participating in traditional Medicare. Under terms the government erected when it created the system, those insurers face strict limits on how they communicate to beneficiaries--regulations that exist to protect seniors from acting under the pressures of insurers, who control their benefits. In response to a request from Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT), the Center for Medicaid and Medicare Services has demanded the lobbying effort cease, and is investigating the company to determine whether it violated those rules.

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