Then Trump got in the way.It’s looking more and more like Democrats will abolish the filibuster if they win back the Senate.The two musicians tell the same stories of America for different generations. It was just an unnamed bank account, and I had to go back at them a second time to make them disclose to me whose bank account it was. You could say that McConnell is a reflection of his times, or you could say that he helped make the times what they are. I spoke to Mayer by phone about what she learned, what surprised her, and what she thinks of McConnell’s role in shaping the modern Republican Party. That’s how he’ll be remembered. But Mayer manages to unearth some new revelations about McConnell’s corruption and some of the behind-the-scenes dealings.
He’s devoted to the tactical game of politics in a way I just haven’t seen before. Jane Mayer is a Washington-based staff writer for The New Yorker, specializing in political and investigative reporting.
Based on what people around him told me, I think he would have been just as happy, if not happier, if Trump had been defeated because then he, McConnell, would’ve been the most important Republican in the country and the most powerful. Joe Craft is one of the bigger coal barons in America, and his company, Alliance Resource Partners, has been a big backer of McConnell. It’s a deeply corrupt process that has hurt the country, even if it isn’t technically illegal. It’s the only thing McConnell appears to want, and there’s no ideology behind it, no real worldview, no purpose. He’ll think he did the right thing if he’s reelected and his Republican majority holds in the Senate. I see McConnell as having legitimized the role of money in overwhelming our democracy — that’s his biggest legacy. But as I read your piece, I kept wondering if that almost lets McConnell off the hook in a way. I got the records through a records search, but it took a long time before they were made available, and that contribution was hidden.
McConnell is an active participant in this devolution; he has helped push the country in a certain direction. McConnell has played a huge role in legalizing all of these practices.We’re short on time, but I want to highlight a couple examples of the sort of corruption you’re talking about. I think his second-biggest legacy is in having placed the pursuit of power over the public good during the Trump years. You described a $250,000 donation to an academic center at the University of Louisville named after McConnell. Nothing else matters.
Mitch McConnell’s shameless pursuit of power, explainedThe odd, growing list of Covid-19 symptoms, explained Fever, Covid toes, and a loss of taste: Why are Covid-19 symptoms so weird and varied?The city could have crushed the coronavirus. Jane Mayer: Hi, great to be with you. New Yorker writer Jane Mayer is the latest to take a deep dive into the life and mind of McConnell.
A conservative you cite in the piece said that McConnell is the most corrupt politician in the country. It’s called the McConnell Center at the University of Louisville and it has a permanent exhibit that honors McConnell’s career and place in history.
It wasn’t as if this was something that was being publicly mentioned in any big way at the time when I was reporting on it. Someone you quoted said that the GOP changed beneath McConnell’s feet and that he just rode the wave wherever it took him regardless of the costs. I’d argue it’s the latter — what do you think?Oh, I totally agree that it’s the latter. All that said, I just have to say that we got commentary and pushback from the judge who said it was not his money, that it was his wife’s money and that it has nothing to do with his judgeship.
Is that how you feel after reporting this out?Well, what’s corrupt? We use cookies and other tracking technologies to improve your browsing experience on our site, show personalized content and targeted ads, analyze site traffic, and understand where our audiences come from. But it’s so obvious that he doesn’t care which direction we go, as long as he has a seat at the table when we get there.It’s all tactical, no strategy, no vision.
A lightly edited transcript of our conversation follows.What did you learn about McConnell over the course of this story that you didn’t know when you walked into it?I guess I thought that he was an ideologue of a certain kind, and what I discovered is that he actually has almost no fixed ideology. Vox’s work is reaching more people than ever, but our distinctive brand of explanatory journalism takes resources — particularly during a pandemic and an economic downturn. There’s a judge named Gregory Van Tatenhove, who is on the federal court in Kentucky. Jane Mayer is a staff writer for The New Yorker and the author of three bestselling and critically acclaimed narrative nonfiction books.She co-authored Landslide: The Unmaking of the President, 1984–1988, with Doyle McManus, and Strange Justice: The Selling of Clarence Thomas, with Jill Abramson, which was a finalist for the National Book Award. He’s not just a passive bystander in this. Our mission has never been more vital than it is in this moment: to empower you through understanding. Every day at Vox, we aim to answer your most important questions and provide you, and our audience around the world, with information that has the power to save lives. Sign up for the
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