Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell is taking aim at a nickname coined by MSNBC host Joe Scarborough – "MoscowMitch" – which caught fire on Twitter Tuesday.
The name took off on social media after the political commentator's comments, leading the Republican majority leader to launch a spirited rebuttal from the Senate floor.
"These people have worn out the volume knob so badly that they have nothing left but the most unhinged smears," the long-serving senator charged. "Welcome to modern day McCarthyism."
Occupy Democrats podcast host Grant Stern tweeted that it was obvious that the name “struck a nerve,” adding McConnell “proved Joe’s 100 percent right by spouting the Kremlin line that investigating Putin's help to Trump is McCarthyism.”
The nickname isn't the first to be attached to the senior senator from Kentucky. McConnell was dubbed "Cocaine Mitch" by former West Virginia Senate candidate Don Blankenship, who referred to a 2014 story alleging that drugs were discovered on a commercial cargo ship owned by the family of McConnell's wife, Elaine Chao. McConnell capitalized on the moniker, selling campaign t-shirts that reference the nickname.
Tuesday's dustup comes in the wake of McConnell’s move blocking Democratic-backed election security legislationlast week, following former special counsel Robert Mueller's testimony before Congress.
