GOP Sen. Todd Young After Reparations Question to McConnell: 'I Am So Sick of This S---'
Indiana Republican Sen. Todd Young was not having it Tuesday after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky was asked at a news conference about a report that his ancestors owned slaves.
On Monday, NBC News published a story claiming two of McConnell’s great-grandfathers owned slaves in Alabama.
NBC tried to tie McConnell’s family history to the fact that the Senate majority leader opposes paying reparations to the descendants of slaves.
“I don’t think reparations for something that happened 150 years ago, when none of us currently living are responsible, is a good idea,” McConnell said June 18, according to NBC.
“We’ve tried to deal with our original sin of slavery by fighting a civil war, by passing landmark civil rights legislation. We’ve elected an African-American president,” he added.
McConnell addressed the report Tuesday at the Senate GOP leadership’s weekly news conference, as The Daily Wire pointed out.
“You know, I find myself in the same position as President Obama,” McConnell said.
Sen. Mitch McConnell on the NBC report that his great-great grandfathers owned slaves:
“You know, I find myself in the same position as president Obama. We both oppose reparations and we both are the descendants of slave owners.”
— Ashe Schow (@AsheSchow) July 9, 2019
WARNING: The following tweet contains profane language that some readers may find offensive. Viewer discretion is advised.
“We both oppose reparations and we both are the descendants of slave owners,” he added.
The fact that McConnell’s ancestry is now controversial reportedly caught the ire of Young.
“When McConnell was asked at presser about his great-great grandfather being a slaveowner in Alabama, and whether that has changed his mind about reparations, Sen Todd Young, standing behind McConnell, turned and walked away,” CNN Capitol Hill reporter Kristin Wilson Keppler tweeted.
When McConnell was asked at presser about his great-great grandfather being a slaveowner in Alabama, and whether that has changed his mind about reparations, Sen Todd Young, standing behind McConnell, turned and walked away, saying to a staffer, “I am so sick of this shit.”
— Kristin Wilson Keppler (@TheOtherKeppler) July 9, 2019
Young then reportedly told one of his staffers, “I am so sick of this s—.”
McConnell’s claim that Obama’s ancestors owned slaves as well is not without merit.
An amateur genealogist discovered in 2007, while Obama was running for president, that his great-great-great-great-grandfather owned two slaves, as did his great-great-great-great-great-grandmother, according to The Guardian.
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