Last updated on April 12th, 2013 at 10:29 pm
Hours after urging the FBI to investigate what he called a Watergate style Democratic bugging, Mitch McConnell’s blame the Democrats for the secret audio tape strategy is falling apart.
After the publication of a secret audio tape where Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) detailed some of the sleazy tactics he planned to use to get reelected, his campaign called for an FBI investigation.
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McConnell’s campaign manager Jesse Benton said, “Senator McConnell’s campaign is working with the FBI and has notified the local U.S. Attorney in Louisville, per FBI request, about these recordings. Obviously a recording device of some kind was placed in Senator McConnell’s campaign office without consent. By whom and how that was accomplished presumably will be the subject of a criminal investigation.” Benton continued, “We’ve always said the Left would stop at nothing to attack Sen. McConnell, but Watergate-style tactics to bug campaign headquarters are above and beyond.”
Mother Jones has denied that McConnell’s office was bugged,
“We are still waiting for Sen. Mitch McConnell to comment on the substance of the article. Before posting, we contacted his Senate office and his campaign office—in particular, his campaign manager, Jesse Benton—and no one responded. As the story makes clear, we were recently provided with the tape by a source who wishes to remain anonymous. We published the article on the tape due to its obvious newsworthiness. We were not involved in the making of the tape, but it is our understanding that the tape was not the product of any kind of bugging operation. We cannot comment beyond that, except to say that under the circumstances, our publication of the article is both legal and protected by the First Amendment.”
According to Kentucky state law, if the person who made the recording was a part of the conversation, the taping was legal. In order words, Mitch McConnell did not have to be notified that he was being recorded. It only takes one party’s consent for the taping to legal, so Mitch McConnell doesn’t have a leg to stand on.
The real purpose of this “FBI investigation” is to uncover the mole in McConnell’s reelection campaign. Mitch McConnell’s campaign has sprung a leak, and they are desperate to know who it is. The claims of a Democratic bugging are nothing more than a shameless attempt to distract Kentucky voters from the fact that McConnell is the least popular senator in the country. McConnell is hoping that the paranoid sympathy Republican vote will carry him to reelection.
Mitch McConnell’s story is crumbling quickly, and his hopes for another term may be fading before his own eyes.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
