“From electoral law to environmentalism to radical social agendas to the Second Amendment, parts of the private sector continue to behave like an awakened parallel government,” Republican Kentucky said in a statement Monday. “Businesses will have serious consequences if they become a means of left-wing populations hijacking our country outside the constitutional order.”
“Businesses must not use financial blackmail to spread disinformation and push bad ideas that citizens reject at the ballot box,” he added.
McConnell accused Democrats of lying about the Georgia law, which was quickly passed by state Republicans and signed into law last month by GOP government Brian Kemp.
“Our private sector must stop taking signals from the Outrage-Industrial Complex. Americans do not need or want large companies to amplify disinformation or respond to any produced controversy with hectic left-wing signaling,” McConnell said in his statement, adding, that “it is ironic to see powerful American institutions not only allow themselves to be bullied, but participate in the bullying themselves.”
Republican proponents of the law argue that it makes Georgia’s election more secure and that it expands access to voting – pointing to the law’s requirement that each county must have at least one drop box for absentee ballots and the extension of early voting in many counties.
However, the law dramatically reduces the number of drop-boxes in some large counties, significantly shortens both the total length of run-off campaigns and the early run-off voting period, and shortens the duration of the absent voting period.
MLB’s move to move the All-Star Game, potentially costing Georgia $ 100 million in lost economic impact, was the first in response to the state election law. Atlanta Democratic Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms on CNN on Saturday predicted it would be the “first of many boycotts in our state to come.”
During a press conference on Saturday, Kemp vehemently defended the law on elections in Georgia, saying he would not swing or be affected if Georgia were to lose more events and thus cost the state more business and tourism dollars.
He accused the MLB of putting the Democrats’ wishes “ahead of the economic well-being of hard-working Georgians who counted on the All-Star Game for a paycheck.”
Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock of Georgia, like other Democrats, said he respected the MLB’s decision but hoped companies would not protest the law by boycotting the state, but “by coming here and fighting voter oppression.”
After the law was passed, some of the country’s most prominent black business leaders called their Fortune 500 peers for their subdued response to new laws restricting voting across the country, challenging them to be more forceful in condemning what they said. were intentional attempts. of Republicans to limit the number of black Americans voting in key states.
At an event in his home state on Monday, McConnell said he “found it quite discouraging to find a bunch of corporate executives coming into the middle of politics.”
“My advice to business administrators in America is to stay out of politics,” he added.
CNN’s Ted Barrett, Eric Bradner, Maeve Reston, Dianne Gallagher and Annie Grayer contributed to this report.
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