Mitch McConnell Cited Martin Luther King Jr. In His Victory Speech, MLK’s Children Were Not Happy

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) easily won his Senate race against former Marine fighter pilot Amy McGrath Tuesday. During his victory quoted civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.

“When I witnessed Dr. Martin Luther King’s March on Washington speech as an intern back in 1963, I dreamed about doing big things to help my state and our country,” McConnell said. “I never imagined Kentuckians would make me the longest-serving senator in our state’s history.”

King’s children burned McConnell for mentioning their father’s name.

King’s daughter Bernice reacted to McConnell’s speech on Twitter, blasting McConnell for pretending to care about his constituents.

But my father’s dream was to create the #BelovedCommunity, in part by eradicating #racism, #militarism and #poverty. Certainly not by denying #healthcare to human beings or by separating Brown immigrant children from their parents. #TripleEvils #BigThings #BeLove https://t.co/yyhUsL13Qd

— Be A King (@BerniceKing) November 4, 2020

Bernice wrote that her father’s dream was to create a beloved community by “eradicating racism, militarism and poverty” and “certainly not by denying #healthcare to human beings or by separating Brown immigrant children from their parents.”

Martin Luther King III also had harsh words for McConnell, criticizing the Kentucky politician for refusing to entertain hundreds of bills drafted by the House.

Mitch McConnell has had the opportunity to bring police reform & voting rights legislation to the floor of the Senate for months. If he was truly inspired by my father, he would join the fight to eradicate racism through policies that aim at creating peace, justice, and equity.

— Martin Luther King III (@OfficialMLK3) November 4, 2020

“Mitch McConnell has had the opportunity to bring police reform and voting rights legislation to the floor of the Senate for months,” he wrote. “If he was truly inspired by my father, he would join the fight to eradicate racism through policies that aim at creating peace, justice, and equity.”

According to The Hill, the bills on McConnell’s desk range from lowering healthcare and prescription drug costs to gun control and protecting pensions. There’s also a 2019 bill aimed at restoring a provision in the 1965 Voting Rights Act named after the late John Lewis sitting on the Senator’s desk.

Last year, several Democratic senators tweeted a picture of a giant stack of paper representing the bills currently stuck in the Senate that McConnell has refused to put up for a vote, even though according to the senators, 90% of the bills were drafted with bipartisan support.

In February, Newsweek asked McConnell about the bills and why he hasn’t pushed them forward. McConnell responded by saying the bills would not get passed because the government is divided and instead has “to work on things we can agree.”

The Kentucky senator then listed government spending, the U.S.-Mexico-Canada free trade agreement, an infrastructure bill, a parks bill, and several environmental issues as examples of bills the government could agree on.