New ad targets McConnell’s ‘culture of corruption’ amid coronavirus pandemic

The group Fix Our Senate is launching a new ad targeting Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) over corruption scandals surrounding several senators amid the coronavirus pandemic. 

In the 30-second digital ad a narrator claims McConnell “turned a blind eye to senators profiting from stock sales while America fights coronavirus.” 

The ad includes flashes to news segments about Sens. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) and Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.), who are among a handful of senators accused of potentially violating a law banning Congress members from making financial trades based on nonpublic information. 

Loeffler and Burr, along with Sens. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) and Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), each sold hundreds of thousands of dollars in stock within days of the Senate holding a classified briefing in January with the Trump administration about the threat of the coronavirus outbreak. 

The narrator of the ad also hits McConnell for putting “handouts for big corporations ahead of real assistance for regular Americans.” 

“His corruption continues while doctors and nurses can’t get the supplies they need and millions are unemployed,” the narrator says. “Enough is enough. Tell Mitch McConnell: end the culture of corruption in the Senate.” 

The ad will run on digital platforms in Washington, D.C., for the next two weeks. 

It’s part of a broader strategy where Democrats across the board are going to begin calling out the Senate for a culture of corruption, according to Fix Our Senate, a D.C.-based advocacy organization that aims to fight obstruction and McConnell’s “dangerous legislative agenda.”

After news of the senators selling stock broke last month, Loeffler, whose husband is the chairman of the New York Stock Exchange, called it a “ridiculous and baseless attack.” 

“I do not make investment decisions for my portfolio,” Loeffler tweeted at the time. “Investment decisions are made by multiple third-party advisors without my or my husband’s knowledge or involvement.”

Burr also denied wrongdoing and requested the Senate Ethics Committee launch an investigation into his stock trading.

Inhofe said in a statement that he did not attend the Senate coronavirus briefing.

A spokesperson for Feinstein told The New York Times at the time that the senator had nothing to do with the decision to sell her stocks. Feinstein’s assets are in a blind trust and the senator has no involvement in her husband’s financial decisions, the spokesperson said.