Take up election security????

Schumer predicts McConnell will take up election security

By BURGESS EVERETT

Mitch McConnell rarely budges in the face of political pressure. But Chuck Schumer thinks election security is an exception.

The Senate minority leader predicted on Thursday that the majority leader will buckle and take up federal election security, a once-bipartisan issue. But though Democrats have continued their push in the House and Senate, McConnell (R-Ky.) has thus far resisted.

“I predict that the pressure will continue to mount on Republican senators, especially Leader McConnell, and they will be forced to join us and take meaningful action on election security this fall,” Schumer said. “My prediction is our relentless push is going to produce results.”

Though McConnell rarely rethinks opposition to legislation, he did allow criminal justice reform legislation on the Senate floor last year that he initially declined to take up. But that pressure came from President Donald Trump, not the party trying to oust him as majority leader.

McConnell is under criticism from pundits, Democrats, and even former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development and current presidential candidate Julián Castro as “Moscow Mitch." This week, McConnell mounted a forceful defense on the Senate floor of his decision not to move forward on federal election security bills. He called suggestions that he’s “un-American” or a tool of Vladimir Putin a “smear” and an example of “modern-day McCarthyism.”

“I worked to ensure Congress sent hundreds of millions of dollars to the states to improve their defenses, and applauded the whole-of-government efforts that the administration continues,” McConnell said on Monday. “Some of my colleagues quickly pivoted right back into hysterical accusations that only fan the flames of this modern-day McCarthyism. These pundits are lying when they dismiss the work that has been done.”

Republicans said this week that the Trump administration is already carrying out much of the election security work that senators in both parties sought to pass last year before opposition from the White House halted those efforts. Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), the Senate rules chairman, said he is satisfied with the current level of progress but would continue to monitor whether Congress needs to step in.

Democrats remain unconvinced. And Schumer (D-N.Y.) suggested that because he has not “heard one good reason from Republicans why they shouldn’t do it,” there could be something more nefarious afoot.

“Is it, I hope not, that they think if Russia interferes it will be benefit them? Is it, I hope not, that they’re afraid of President Trump who has this childish and puerile view that if he admits there is Russian interference it makes his election illegitimate?” Schumer asked on Thursday.