Amy Klobuchar: It is ‘not American’ to allow continued interference in elections

Sen. Amy Klobuchar on Tuesday slammed Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell for working to block bills aimed at bolstering election security, saying it is “not American” to continue to allow a foreign power to “invade” U.S. democracy.

“This is about our democracy — it’s a foreign power trying to invade our democracy,” Ms. Klobuchar, a 2020 presidential candidate from Minnesota, said Tuesday evening on MSNBC. “I don’t care if you are a conservative Republican or a liberal Democrat — it is not American to allow that to continue.”

“You should do everything to protect the sanctity of our elections, and he knows that,” she said of Mr. McConnell. “He just doesn’t want to do it.”

Ms. Klobuchar touted legislation she has introduced along with Sen. James Lankford, Oklahoma Republican, and others that would require backup paper ballots and provide grants for states to upgrade their election security, among other priorities.

Critics on the left have labeled Mr. McConnell “Moscow Mitch,” accusing him of failing to move quickly enough to pass election security legislation in the wake of Russian interference in the 2016 election.

But he has said the Trump administration is moving behind the scenes to counter Russia and other potential interferers, and took exception with that nickname earlier Tuesday.

“It’s modern-day McCarthyism,” the Kentucky Republican told radio host Hugh Hewitt. “Unbelievable for a Cold Warrior like me who spent a career standing up to the Russians to be given a moniker like that. It’s an effort to smear me. You know, I can laugh about things like the Grim Reaper, but calling me Moscow Mitch is over the top.”