‘Less than 48 hours after this activist tried to literally murder a politician, the radical left bailed their comrade out of jail. It is just jaw-dropping. The innocent people of Louisville deserve better.’
WASHINGTON, D.C. (February 17, 2022) – U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) delivered the following remarks today on the Senate floor regarding law and order:
“For the first time in 12 years, an outright majority of Americans say crime has gotten worse in their area over the past year.
“Many Democrats have spent the last year and a half trying to defund police, smear law enforcement, and go soft on crime. As a result, innocent citizens have spent a year and a half watching murders, carjackings, and other violent crimes skyrocket.
“On Monday, my hometown of Louisville was stunned by what appears to have been an assassination attempt against a Jewish mayoral candidate by a prominent far-left activist who’d previously called for defunding our Police Department.
“This far-left Black Lives Matter activist and defund-the-police cheerleader walked into a Jewish Democrat’s campaign headquarters and opened fire.
“Obviously, every aspect of this is still under investigation, including the suspect’s mental condition.
“But guess what: He’s already been let out of jail.
“A left-wing bail fund partnered with BLM Louisville to bail him out.
“Less than 48 hours after this activist tried to literally murder a politician, the radical left bailed their comrade out of jail.
“It is just jaw-dropping. The innocent people of Louisville deserve better.
“Since 2020, a long list of prominent corporations have donated or pledged enormous amounts of money to the radical nationwide BLM parent organization.
“One wonders if any of their corporate money helped spring this would-be assassin from jail.
“Now, I'm confident that if an activist claiming to be conservative tried to assassinate a politician, whatever his mental state, the media would open a 24-7 ‘national conversation’ about rhetoric on the right.
“Somehow I doubt attempted murder by a BLM activist will get that treatment.
“I doubt we’ll have a ‘national conversation’ about the constant chorus of powerful voices calling our society evil.
“I raise this double-standard because it is not limited to media coverage. We’ve seen this extend into our legal system itself.
“In May 2020, when Minneapolis was engulfed in lawless riots, one rioter broke into a pawn shop and started a fire that burned it down. His act of arson killed somebody.
“But the federal attorneys who were supposed to represent the victim and the People went out of their way to push for an unusually lenient sentence. They asked for the typical sentencing guideline to be cut in half.
“Why? Because, they wrote, the defendant was an angry political protestor who lost his cool. They wrote, ‘as anyone watching the news worldwide knows, many other people in Minnesota were similarly caught up.’ As if that were any excuse.
“This is the sentencing memo from the prosecutors. It reads like it was ghostwritten by the defense. They even tried to quote Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to explain why this guy burned down a pawn shop.
“What a backwards attitude. We cannot have federal officials acting like left-wing political violence is more acceptable than any other violence. If anything, political violence is uniquely unacceptable in a democratic republic.
“I placed a hold on President Biden’s nominee to take over as U.S. Attorney in Minnesota until he pledged he’d keep political favoritism out of his prosecutions. Fortunately, he quickly said so in writing. He also knows Republicans will be watching.
“The American people need public servants to crack down on crime and defend their safety. Less pandering to woke mobs; more protecting innocent families.”
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