Hillary Clinton calls Mitch McConnell's silence on Russian election meddling 'unpatriotic' and 'despicable'

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published 14 September 2017

Hillary Clinton leveled a tough accusation at Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) in a newly published interview with The New Yorker. Clinton, who is featured on the front of The New Yorker this week in the cover that would've run had she won, recalled the moment during the election when the CIA in August first told former President Barack Obama that Russia had been meddling.

Obama shared that information with congressional leadership, as well as the chairs and ranking members of congressional intelligence committees. He wanted "a bipartisan statement of warning issued," The New Yorker reported.

But, according to Clinton, McConnell "adamantly refused, muffling for weeks any sense of national alarm," The New Yorker said. "Mitch McConnell, in what I think of as a not only unpatriotic but despicable act of partisan politics, made it clear that if the Obama administration spoke publicly about what they knew, he would accuse them of partisan politics, of trying to tip the balance toward me," Clinton said. "McConnell basically threatened the White House, and I know that was on the president's mind. It was a predicament for him."