Is McConnell Afraid GOP Can't Win Without Russian Help?

• “It wasn't a single attempt. They're doing it as we sit here. And they expect to do it during the next campaign,” he (Mueller) told the House Intelligence Committee of Russia’s tampering in American elections.

Last June, the House passed a sweeping election security bill -- The Securing America's Federal Elections Act (SAFE). But now over a month later, the Senate has not taken up the bill -- for debate or a vote.

Why? Because Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, has blocked the bill. It's one of more than 100 House-passed bills that McConnell refuses to let the Senate debate or vote on.

Yesterday, acting on the warning from Robert Mueller that Russia continues to interfere in our electoral process, three Democratic senators (Warner of Virginia, Blumenthal of Connecticut, and Wyden of Oregon) tried to bring Senate bills to the floor for passage regarding this issue. Two would require any politician contacted by a foreign power to report that to the FBI, and the third would have provided cybersecurity help for personal accounts and devices of senators and their staff. Senators can request a bill to be brought up, as long as no other senator objects.

But there was an objection. McConnell sent one of his GOP henchmen to the floor to object. This time it was Cindy Hyde-Smith of Mississippi. She objected to bringing up all three bills.

So, McConnell continues to block not only the House bill, but any Senate bills that would address Russian interference in our electoral process. Why is he doing this? Shouldn't anyone in Congress be happy to act to make our elections more secure, and keep them free of foreign influence? Isn't it obvious that any foreign power interfering be doing so for their own benefit -- not the benefit of the United States?

I can only think of one reason. He is afraid that the Republicans cannot win in 2020 unless they have as much help as they can get from the Russians -- both on social media, and in hacking state election databases. He knows the party will be going into the 2020 elections led by a deeply unpopular president (who was helped by Russia in 2016, and will need that help again to be re-elected).

Perhaps even more important, McConnell wants to keep his job as majority leader (which requires a Republican majority in the Senate) and to retake control of the House for his party. Polls show neither is likely to happen. It seems that McConnell is hoping the Russians can save him and his party.

This makes McConnell a traitor to our democracy, and it makes it very important to vote him (and his GOP friends) out of office. Democrats and Independents must go to the polls in 2020 in large enough numbers to overcome Russian interference and Republican intransigence. The fate of our democratic system is at stake.