18:45

A Super Pac set up to help defeat the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, is releasing its first attack ad against the top Kentucky Republican.

The 46-second web ad by the “Fire Mitch. Save America” Super Pac is a compilation of clips of late night hosts lambasting McConnell. It starts with Daily Show comedian Trevor Noah saying McConnell is “truly the perfect movie villain” while images of McConnell on the Senate floor and smiling directly into the camera.

The ad shows a clip of comedian Samantha Bee saying “McConnell is so good at blocking things he’s like the kidney stone of the Senate.” Thr MSNBC host Joe Scarborough’s voice then says “keeps killing any bill that would protect American democracy” before going back to Bee saying McConnell has been “openly bragging about he how he stole a supreme court seat” – a reference to McConnell’s refusal to hold hearings on Barack Obama’s nomination of Merrick Garland for the supreme court. The ad then switches to a clip of McConnell saying “think of me as the grim reaper”.

The ad frames McConnell as a nefarious figure in the Senate, a common sentiment among Democrats.

“Mitch McConnell is the most unpopular senator in the entire country and yet he has enormous power to block progress on so many issues important to all of our families,” Democratic strategist Eric Hyers, the founder of the Super Pac, said in a statement. “He is fueling the cynicism and distrust of Washington and it’s time for him to go. Kentucky and all Americans deserve better.”

The ad is the first one by the Super Pac and is set to air on multiple digital platforms. It’s the latest example of Democrats’ efforts to oust the longtime senator by painting him as a consummate Washington insider motivated by partisanship above all else.

McConnell is up for re-election in 2020 and multiple Democrats are running in the primary for the party nomination to face him. But Democrat Amy McGrath, the former Democratic congressional candidate, is the heavy favorite.

The Super Pac plans to produce more content against McConnell.



