Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) told reporters in Kentucky Monday that he "couldn’t be prouder of the Senate Republican Conference” for standing up for their belief in the "presumption of innocence" in light of what they had to face from demonstrators during Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination process.
“We were standing up for the presumption of innocence in this country,” he said, “and secondly, we were literally under assault. These demonstrators, I’m sure some of them were well-meaning citizens. But many of them were obviously trying to get in our faces, to go to our homes, basically almost attack us in the halls of the capitol.”
"There was a full-scale effort to intimidate," he emphasized.
Sen. McConnell sent a message to the protestors flooding the Capitol last week as the Senate weighed the allegations against Kavanaugh.
“I’m not suggesting we’re the victims here,” he said on the Senate floor, “but I want to make it clear to these people who are chasing my members around the hall here or harassing them at the airports or going to their homes: we will not be intimidated by these people.”
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) was chased out of a D.C. restaurant by protestors over his support of Kavanaugh.
McConnell was also confronted by protesters at a Washington airport and repeatedly asked if he believed the sexual assault allegations against Kavanaugh.
Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), a key vote who went to great lengths to explain the rationale behind her support of Kavanaugh on Friday, is currently facing ugly threats, including some who are calling for her to be publicly harassed for the rest of her life over her vote.