Mitch McConnell is the Republican leader in the U.S. Senate. At the time this happened, he was the Senate Majority Leader. He usually makes an effort to appear above the fray but when his official campaign account shared a photo a group of young men in his #TeamMitch shirts assaulted, groped, and strangled a life-size photo cutout of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez suggesting she should be assaulted with the phrase “Break me off a piece of that” he did not apologize. Instead his campaign offered a very boys-will-be-boys defense.
Just to be clear, this was shared on the OFFICIAL campaign account. Rather than apologize for sharing the picture, his campaign cried victim, suggesting the media used the image to “demonize, stereotype, and publicly castigate every young person who dares to get involved with Republican politics.”
McConnell’s campaign statement tries to make these boys the victims, but AOC may have been disgusted by the boys, but she did not call them out. She called out the campaign that shared this photo on their campaign Instagram account. The boys did not do that. McConnell’s campaign did that.
Many of his political positions reinforce rape culture as well, denying federal funding for trafficking victims, refusing to renew the Violence Against Women Act, etc. However, that would paint with too broad a brush, implicating every Republican in rape culture.
- New York Daily News: Mitch McConnell campaign essentially says boys will be boys after Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez blasts disturbing groping pic
- Washington Post: Ocasio-Cortez confronts McConnell over photo of men in ‘Team Mitch’ shirts ‘groping & choking’ her cutout
Lexington Herald-Leader
Lexington, Kentucky · Wednesday, August 07, 2019
