Singer Ben Folds Targets McConnell with Song ‘Moscow Mitch’

NEW YORK - OCTOBER 12: In this handout from Starwood Preferred Guest, musician Ben Folds o
Larry Busacca/Getty Images for Starwood Preferred Guest
Hannah Knudsen

Singer-songwriter Ben Folds went after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), unveiling his song “Moscow Mitch” in New York Thursday in reaction to McConnell’s move to block an election security bill.

“For this song, what I want to do is put a little cool stutter in it, like, you know, ’My-my-my-my-my-my Sharona,’” Folds told the audience Thursday. “So what we’ll do is, we’ll go: Mah-mah-mah-Moscow Mitch.”

Former Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s testimonies last week reignited talk over foreign election interference.

“Over the course of my career, I’ve seen a number of challenges to our democracy,” Mueller said last week. “The Russian government’s effort to interfere in our election is among the most serious. As I said on May 29, this deserves the attention of every American. They’re doing it as we sit here.”

#MoscowMitch started catching steam after MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough slammed McConnell for blocking an election security bill aimed to address election security concerns.

According to reports:

Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., objected to the bill that would have required paper ballots and funding for the Election Assistance Commission. It passed the House 225-184 with one Republican voting for it.

“He is aiding and abetting Putin’s ongoing attempts to subvert U.S. democracy, according to the Republican FBI, CIA, DN,” Scarborough said.

“All Republicans are saying Russia is trying to subvert U.S. democracy, and Moscow Mitch won’t even let the Senate take a vote on it,” the Morning Joe host added. “That is un-American.”

Scarborough’s rant seemed to inspire the hashtag as well as Folds’ song.

McConnell argued that it was not a realistic bipartisan bill but rather something crafted by the Democrats who pushed the Trump-Russia collusion “conspiracy theory.”

“Clearly this request is not a serious effort to make a law,” McConnell said. “Clearly something so partisan that it only received one single solitary Republican vote in the House is not going to travel through the Senate by unanimous consent.”

Additionally, Republicans say they have already taken enough steps to ensure election security.

McConnell slammed his critics in a speech Monday.

“I was called unpatriotic, ‘un-American’ and essentially treasonous by a couple of left-wing pundits on the basis of boldfaced lies,” McConnell said on the Senate floor. “I was accused of ‘aiding and abetting’ the very man I’ve singled out as our adversary and opposed for nearly 20 years: Vladimir Putin.”

“This modern-day McCarthyism was pushed by big-time outlets. The smear that I am, quote, a ‘Russian asset’ ran in the opinion pages of The Washington Post,” he added.

McConnell’s team reacted to hashtag with a snarky tweet of its own Tuesday.

COMMENTS

Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.