MLK’s children fire back after McConnell invokes their father in victory speech

The children of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. knocked Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) for invoking their father during his victory speech on Tuesday night.

The 78-year-old senator sailed to secure his seventh term, defeating his Democratic opponent Amy McCrath by garnering more than 58 percent of the vote.

While giving his election night speech in Kentucky, McConnell recalled witnessing the Civil Rights activist giving his iconic speech. 

“When I witnessed Dr. Martin Luther King’s March on Washington speech as an intern back in 1963, I dreamed about doing big things to help my state and our country,” McConnell said. “I never imagined Kentuckians would make me the longest-serving senator in our state’s history.”

King’s daughter, Bernice King, reacted to McConnell’s speech on Twitter, saying her father’s dream was to create a beloved community by “eradicating racism, militarism and poverty.”

“Certainly not by denying #healthcare to human beings or by separating Brown immigrant children from their parents,” she wrote.

But my father’s dream was to create the #BelovedCommunity, in part by eradicating #racism, #militarism and #poverty. Certainly not by denying #healthcare to human beings or by separating Brown immigrant children from their parents. #TripleEvils #BigThings #BeLove https://t.co/yyhUsL13Qd

— Be A King (@BerniceKing) November 4, 2020

Martin Luther King III echoed his sister’s sentiments on Twitter, criticizing the Senate leader for not bringing bills to the chamber’s floor.

“Mitch McConnell has had the opportunity to bring police reform and voting rights legislation to the floor of the Senate for months,” he wrote. “If he was truly inspired by my father, he would join the fight to eradicate racism through policies that aim at creating peace, justice, and equity.”

Mitch McConnell has had the opportunity to bring police reform & voting rights legislation to the floor of the Senate for months. If he was truly inspired by my father, he would join the fight to eradicate racism through policies that aim at creating peace, justice, and equity.

— Martin Luther King III (@OfficialMLK3) November 4, 2020

The Democrat-controlled House passed a bill in 2019 aimed at restoring a key provision in the 1965 Voting Rights Act.  

Originally passed to ensure that racial discrimination would not affect the rights of people of color to vote in the U.S., a section of the original act that forced particular jurisdictions, mostly in the South, to report any changes to voting laws to the Department of Justice was struck down by the Supreme Court in 2013.

McConnell has not brought the bill to the Senate floor for a vote, even after facing pressure from Democrats to do so following the July death of Civil Rights icon Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.).