mitch mcconnell and rachel mitchell

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Mitch McConnell called a 26-year career prosecutor a ‘female assistant’

She isn't a college intern, McConnell.

 

Ana Valens

IRL

Posted on Sep 26, 2018   Updated on May 21, 2021, 5:37 am CDT

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) calling an experienced prosecutor a “female assistant” probably isn’t doing his party any favors to prove Republicans know how to respect women.

After McConnell announced to reporters that the Senate Judiciary Committee hired a “female assistant” to question Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, who has accused Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault, McConnell received some pretty significant blowback for making an experienced attorney sound like a college intern.

Rachel Mitchell, from Arizona’s Maricopa County Attorney’s Office, is a highly experienced attorney with a 26-year history at the county alone, where she serves as the bureau chief of sex crimes. Even Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) called her “a career prosecutor” with “decades of experience,” ABC15 reports.

So it’s strange that McConnell would call her a mere “female assistant.” This didn’t escape Twitter, which quickly swarmed McConnell for talking down an experienced attorney.

Granted, Mitchell is facing some scrutiny of her own, with many pointing to her mixed track record on prosecuting sex abuse crimes. In one case, a Jehova’s Witness elder only received six months in county jail after confessing to sexually abusing a teenage boy. Others view the county as fundamentally troubled: After all, Mitchell served alongside Maricopa County’s controversial Sheriff Joe Arpaio for most of her years in office.

https://twitter.com/kelly2277/status/1044758072089088002

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Dr. Ford is set to testify tomorrow in an open hearing with the Senate Judiciary Committee, where Mitchell will help question Ford on her accusations against Kavanaugh.

H/T the Cut

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*First Published: Sep 26, 2018, 9:44 am CDT