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Mitch McConnell campaign blasted for photos of tombstones for political foes | TribLIVE.com
Politics Election

Mitch McConnell campaign blasted for photos of tombstones for political foes

Bret Gibson
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Ap
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., addresses the audience gathered at the Fancy Farm Picnic in Fancy Farm, Ky., Saturday, Aug. 3, 2019.

It is not a good look for Team Mitch.

The Mitch McConnell campaign tweeted an image during the weekend of a mock graveyard with the names on tombstones of the Senate majority leader’s political opponents.

And the timing could not be worse.

Two mass shootings where more than 30 people were killed sandwiched the posting, which was taken at Fancy Farm, Ky., where the Kentucky senator had a campaign rally.

Amy McGrath, a Democrat who is taking on McConnell for the 2020 Senate race, had her name graced on one of the tombstones.

“Hours after the El Paso shooting, Mitch McConnell proudly tweeted this photo. I find it so troubling that our politics have become so nasty and personal that the Senate Majority Leader thinks it’s appropriate to use imagery of the death of a political opponent (me) as messaging,” McGrath tweeted.

Other tombstones had Judge Merrick Garland, former Democratic challenger Alison Lundergan Grimes, the Green New Deal and socialism. McConnell’s “Team Mitch” campaign yard signs were scattered among the tombstones.

Also criticizing McConnell was former Arizona congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, who retired from Congress after being shot at a campaign event in January 2011.

“I am appalled that in this divisive political climate — a climate where gun violence fueled by hate is on the rise — Mitch McConnell is joking about the death of his current and former opponents and a federal judge,” Giffords said in a statement.

McConnell’s campaign said that the photo was of a display built by supporters and that it was based on a newspaper cartoon, the Washington Post reported.

Meanwhile, a photo of McConnell supporters posing with a cardboard cutout of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. In the photo, one supporter looked like he was choking the effigy of the freshman representative.

McConnell, who tripped on his outdoor patio and fractured his shoulder Sunday morning at his Louisville home, had no comment.

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