Watch Nancy Pelosi call Mitch McConnell 'Moscow Mitch'

Nancy Pelosi slams &quot;Moscow Mitch&quot; McConnell

(Image credit: Screenshot/YouTube/AP)

published 15 August 2019

At a Democratic event in Springfield, Illinois, on Wednesday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) poked at Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) for proudly killing almost all legislation the House has passed and sent on to the Senate. "'Moscow Mitch' says that he is the Grim Reaper — imagine describing yourself as the Grim Reaper — that he's going to bury all this legislation," she said. The Democratic officials in the audience laughed.

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"Grim Reaper" is a name McConnell did give himself back in April, but "Moscow Mitch" was coined by MSNBC's Joe Scarborough, who tore into McConnell in July for blocking legislation to combat foreign election interference. The nickname gained new relevance after The Washington Post reported this week on a Kremlin-linked Russian company that invested in a Kentucky factory after McConnell helped thwart efforts to kill a White House effort to lift sanctions on the company.

Asked for comment on Pelosi using the nickname in public, McConnell spokesman David Popp pointed CNN to McConnell's July floor speech in which he denounced such sobriquets as "modern-day McCarthyism."

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.