Hello,

Rachel Maddow did a masterful job on MSNBC of explaining how Mitch McConnell helped lift U.S. sanctions on a Russian oligarch and his aluminum company; how that company then turned around and invested hundreds of millions of dollars in McConnell's home state; and how Mitch then repaid the lobbyist who made it all possible.

We don't know that we could explain it any better than Rachel did, so instead, we wanted to make sure you saw what she had to say on her show:

Here's a story. Or here's at least a series of events that may or may not be connected, but I'm trying to wrap my head around them. Starts a little over a year ago: The U.S. government put sanctions on a Kremlin-connected Russian oligarch, a close ally of Russian president Vladmir Putin, guy by the name of Oleg Deripaska. He used to do a bunch of work with Paul Manafort - you ever heard of him?

Anyway, the new sanctions on Oleg Deripaska were punishment from the U.S. government, in part, for Russia's attack on our 2016 election. Those sanctions on him also included sanctions on Deripaska's giant aluminum company, which is called Rusal. Well, after the sanctions were put on Deripaska, there followed a robust and very expensive campaign by lobbyists for Deripaska.

Deripaska got what he paid for in that lobbying campaign. The Treasury Department soon announced that actually - second thoughts - they were going to lift the sanctions on Deripaska's company. They were going to lift the sanctions on Rusal.

And then something kind of remarkable happened. A big, bipartisan majority in the House of Representatives said, 'Actually, no. The U.S. government should not lift those sanctions. Are you kidding? Oleg Deripaska was sanctioned for a reason. For a good reason. Why is the Trump Treasury Department lifting those sanctions?'

It wasn't just Democrats in the House. It was 70% of Republicans in the House who voted with Democrats to block the Trump administration from getting rid of those sanctions on Deripaska's aluminum company. So, big, bipartisan vote in the House to tell the Trump administration, 'No, don't lift those sanctions. Those sanctions should stay.'

Then it goes over to the Senate - Senate turns out to be a different story. There were a whole bunch of Republican senators who wanted to join the House in making sure those sanctions stayed on Deripaska's company. But the Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell made sure that that measure met a swift death on his side of the capitol. And so, the Trump administration was allowed to, in fact, lift those sanctions on Oleg Deripaska's aluminum company earlier this year... Ka-Ching!

And since then, there have been a couple of notable developments involving Mitch McConnell.

First, Oleg Deripaska's company announced that they have made a 'surprise decision' to spend $200 million dollars opening a new plant in Mitch McConnell's home state of Kentucky. It'll come with a bow on it. It's a project they say will bring 'billions of dollars and thousands of jobs' to Mitch McConnell's state.

Secondly, just before that deal, that present to Mitch McConnell, was publicly announced, one of Rusal's lobbyists was dispatched to give Mitch McConnell 'a heads up' about this big present he was getting from Oleg. This 'heads up' that they'd be building a brand-spanking-new plant in his state after all the good work Mitch McConnell did to make sure that Rusal would have its sanctions lifted.

The lobbyist who delivered that good news to Mitch McConnell, the guy who personally made the call, is a man named David Vitter. You may recognize him. He used to be a Republican senator from Louisiana - kind of famous for a sex scandal that never really resolved cleanly...

What we've since learned is that within five weeks of David Vitter calling Mitch McConnell to tell him that Rusal was going to put this plant in Kentucky, Rusal was going to dump hundreds of millions of dollars into Mitch McConnell's home state. Within five weeks of that call, the nomination of David Vitter's wife to be a federal judge, a nomination that had been languishing for a year and a half because she was so humiliatingly and embarrassingly and obviously unqualified for the job. Whose confirmation hearing went so badly, it went viral and got her nomination buried.

Turns out, within five weeks of Mitch McConnell getting that call from David Vitter saying, 'Hey, I got an aluminum plant we're going to put in your home state. Thanks from Oleg!' Within five weeks of that call, Wendy Vitter's nomination got pulled off the trash heap by Mitch McConnell, and Mitch McConnell expedited it, put it on the top of the list, and now she is a federal judge - for life.

Must be nice...

McConnell's office says lifting the sanctions, of course, had 'nothing' to do with the investment in Kentucky by the firm that he lifted the sanctions on. But as for the lobbyist's wife who is now a federal judge, no response from McConnell. I will tell you, we are not the only ones asking questions about this sequence of events...

And Rachel Maddow is right: She's not the only one asking questions about this. House Democrats have requested a federal investigation into the matter, saying they have "serious questions of national security."

This sort of quid pro quo from Mitch McConnell shouldn't be surprising, though. Mitch McConnell doesn't care about our country or everyday working people. This is the man who said his singular mission was to make President Obama a one-term president. Who says we need to cut Social Security and Medicare because of the national debt when he's in the minority party, and then explodes the deficit to give tax cuts to the wealthy when he's in power. Who held open a Supreme Court seat for over a year simply to ensure another ultra-right-wing justice would sit on the Court for decades to come.

Mitch McConnell is a stain on our country and on our democracy who has allowed this president to go unchecked, politicized our independent judiciary, and done nothing but put corporate and wealthy interests first.

But enough is enough. For too long, McConnell has wielded unfettered power and used it to put personal gain and partisan politics before country. But in 2020, Mitch is up for re-election, and we are determined to hold him accountable and send him packing.

That's why we created Ditch Mitch - a new, completely grassroots-funded organization that is solely dedicated to defeating Mitch McConnell this November.

We've set a goal of raising another $100,000 before our end-of-month deadline to help launch our new TV ads in Kentucky and defeat McConnell, but right now we're still falling short. We've already been running digital, radio, and TV ads, and we're planning to mobilize volunteers & voters on a scale never seen before to help Democrat Amy McGrath defeat McConnell, but if we're going to have the resources to do it, we're counting on you.

Already more than 173,000 grassroots donors have chipped in and joined our grassroots movement to take on Mitch McConnell and win. If you're as ready as we are to Ditch Mitch, then can we count on you to make a contribution right now of whatever amount you can afford to hit our goal and help Amy McGrath defeat McConnell? Every dollar you give today will go directly to ensuring that Mitch McConnell never wins another election ever again.

[link removed]

Ready or not, Mitch. The grassroots are coming for you, and no amount of corporate, special interest, or Russian money is going to save you.

Thank you for helping us to continue to build the grassroots movement that will defeat McConnell in 2020,

The Ditch Mitch Fund




















-----

Paid for by Ditch Fund and not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.

Ditch Fund
PO Box 15320
Washington, DC 20003

Contributions or gifts to Ditch Fund are not tax deductible.


This email was sent to [email protected].

If you received this email in error or if you don't want to receive emails from us anymore, you can click here to unsubscribe: [link removed]