The gravedigger of democracy is now throwing dirt on the coffin

The Senate will not vote on any legislation to protect US elections from foreign interference, a Republican committee chair said, despite the consensus of the intelligence community that Russia will once again seek to hack election systems and manipulate American voters in 2020.

The reason, said Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) on Wednesday, is that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has decided not to bring any election security bills to the floor for a vote. Blunt’s remark occurred during a hearing of the Rules and Administration Committee, which has oversight of election administration. When Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) asked Blunt, the chairman, whether he was planning mark-ups of any of the several election security bills pending before the committee, Blunt responded that it would be fruitless to advance legislation that McConnell would not allow to come up for a vote.

“I don’t see any likelihood that those bills would get to the floor if we marked them up,” Blunt said. After prodding from Durbin, Blunt explained, “I think the majority leader just is of the view that this debate reaches no conclusion.”

Mitch McConnell, who blocked Barack Obama's Supreme Court pick in 2016, during that year's presidential campaign, said he'd be fine helping to confirm Donald Trump's choice if an opening were to occur on the nation's high court in the 2020 election cycle.

"Uh, we'd fill it," the Senate majority leader from Kentucky responded with a wry smile Tuesday when asked about such a scenario during city chamber lunch in Paducah.