Mitch McConnell is cranky. You see, he really doesn’t want to safeguard our elections from foreign interference—the kind Robert Mueller warned last week will happen again in 2020 unless action is taken ASAP. We know this based on the fact that he has blocked numerous bipartisan bills intended to prevent election meddling, including one requiring Facebook, Google, and other tech companies to disclose buyers of political ads; one that would impose sanctions on any entity that attacks a U.S. election; and, most recently, one that would have required presidential campaigns to report any offers of assistance from agents of foreign governments, the kind the president has said he would gladly accept. At the same time, the senator from Kentucky doesn’t like when people accurately call him out for stonewalling any and all attempts to actually protect Democracy. It really gets him steamed up! And so, after the Washington Post ran an op-ed denouncing McConnell for systematically preventing the U.S. “from defending ourselves,” and saying that he “is, arguably more than any other American, doing Russian President Vladimir Putin’s bidding,” well, Mitch had no choice but to throw a massive conniption on the Senate floor.

Defending his decision to block the latest election-security bill, McConnell lashed out at the media for suggesting, correctly, that his actions are helping Russia, accusing it of participating in “modern-day McCarthyism” to “smear” his record. “The outrage industrial complex doesn’t let a little thing like reality get in their way,” McConnell complained in a nearly 30-minute rant. “They saw the perfect opportunity to distort and tell lies and fuel the flames of partisan hatred, and so they did.”

“I was called unpatriotic, ‘un-American,’ and essentially treasonous by a couple of left-wing pundits on the basis of boldfaced lies,” McConnell said. “I was accused of ‘aiding and abetting’ the very man I’ve singled out as our adversary and opposed for nearly 20 years: Vladimir Putin.” He added: “This modern-day McCarthyism was pushed by big-time outlets. The smear that I am, quote, a ‘Russian asset’ ran in the opinion pages of the Washington Post.” McConnell then claimed that he’s actually all about stopping foreign interference, and has definitely not kneecapped bills that would protect U.S. elections because he thinks Russian interference will benefit Republicans like him (he’s up for reelection in 2020). “These pundits are lying when they dismiss the work that has been done. They’re lying when they insist that I have personally blocked actions which, in fact, I have championed,” he insisted.

Minutes later, his Democratic counterpart, Chuck Schumer, took to the floor to note that not only has McConnell blocked numerous election-security bills, but he’s refused to have a debate on the topic, or even propose his own legislation. “I still don’t have a really clear idea why Leader McConnell is so adamantly opposed,” Schumer said, suggesting that it might be to avoid a tantrum from Donald Trump. “He has put nothing on the floor on elections.”

In a statement, Fred Hiatt, the Post’s editorial page editor, defended the column that set McConnell off and criticized the senator for trying to liken it to McCarthyism, which, incidentally, is really more of a Republican thing. “Dana Milbank’s column was a legitimate exercise in commentary, making the argument that Sen. McConnell’s blocking of elections-security legislation will harm the United States and work to Russia’s advantage. Of course it’s equally legitimate for Mr. McConnell to express a contrary view, but the Milbank argument has nothing to do with McCarthyism,” Hiatt said.

Meanwhile, on another planet:

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