Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) slammed Democrats and the media for their hypocrisy on crime after an attempted shooting of a Louisville, Kentucky, mayoral candidate by a left-wing Black Lives Matter activist.
Speaking on the floor of the Senate Thursday, the Kentucky Senator also expressed his indignation that the alleged shooter had been bailed out of jail by a bail fund associated with the Louisville chapter of Black Lives Matter.
“For the first time in 12 years, an outright majority of Americans say crime has gotten worse in their area over the past year,” McConnell began, referring to a November 2021 survey conducted by Gallup, in which 51% of respondents said that crime had increased in their local area. The results, according to Gallup, were the highest since 2009, and a 13-point increase since last year, up from 38% in 2020. “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 literally skyrocket,” McConnell said.
“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,” McConnell said of the shooting. “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.”
The Daily Wire reported Wednesday that a bail fund set up by BLM Louisville put up the $100,000 bond set for the 21-year-old shooter:
On Wednesday, Rachel Droze, of local news station WHAS 11, tweeted, “just spoke with @BLMLouisville. They are heading to the bank to get a cashiers check to post Quintez Brown’s bail. Brown is charged with attempted murder for allegedly shooting at mayoral candidate @RunWithCraig.”
That story was confirmed by WHAS 11’s Courtney Hayden, who reported, “Chanelle Helm, an organizer for Black Lives Matter Louisville, said Wednesday that the Louisville Community Bail Fund will pay the $100,000 bond set for Quintez Brown. Leaders with BLM Louisville went to the bank for a cashier’s check around 3:30 p.m. to post his bail.”
As noted by Hayden, “Brown is facing one charge of attempted murder and four counts of wanton endangerment. During his arraignment Tuesday, he pleaded not guilty and his bond was raised from $75,000 to $100,000.”
Later, Droze tweeted, “The $100,000 cashiers check has been officially given to the clerks office to pay for @BLMLouisville activist Quintez Brown’s release. @LouCommBailFund is paying. Brown is accused of shooting at Louisville mayoral candidate @RunWithCraig.”
“Less than 48 hours after this activist tried to literally murder a politician, the radical Left bailed their comrade out of jail,” McConnell continued. “This is just jaw-dropping. The innocent people of Louisville deserve better.” McConnell then specifically claimed that while the media has been silent on the political leanings of the shooter, they would inevitably have targeted the Right for supposedly extremist rhetoric if the shooter had been right-wing. “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,” McConnell said. “Somehow I doubt attempted murder by a BLM activist will get that same treatment. I doubt we’ll have a ‘national conversation’ about the constant chorus of powerful voices calling our society evil.”
McConnell’s remarks came even as a local newspaper in Las Vegas appeared to blame “right-wing” extremism for the attempted shooting, hours after the shooter had been identified as a left-wing activist. “While there’s been no indication yet that the activist had ties to any right-wing organizations, the shooting comes amid a rise in threats against politicians fueled by increasingly violent rhetoric coming from extremist Republicans,” the editorial said.
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