After already facing heavy public scrutiny in recent days over his decisions to block election security and gun control bills from the Senate floor, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell faced a new wave of criticism Monday for a campaign tweet sent over the weekend. The Kentucky senator's official campaign account sent a tweet Saturday—hours after the deadly shooting in El Paso, Texas—embracing the senator's “Grim Reaper of Socialism” monicker with a photo showing a makeshift graveyard display set up at a political picnic event in Fancy Farm, Kentucky. Written on the paper tombstones were names of some of the senator's most opposed causes, like socialism and the Green New Deal—as well as the names of former Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland, McConnell's 2014 opponent Alison Lundergan Grimes, and likely 2020 challenger Amy McGrath, along with the dates that McConnell “killed” them in the Senate or at the ballot box.

McGrath was quick to criticize McConnell for “proudly tweeting” the photo Monday, pointing out the tastelessness of suggesting the deaths of his political opponents as Americans were grieving yet another deadly shooting. “I find it so troubling that our politics have become so nasty and personal that the Senate Majority Leader thinks it's appropriate to use imagery of the death of a political opponent (me) as messaging,” McGrath wrote on Twitter. “It's symptomatic of what is wrong with our system. I'm fine with the ordinary rough and tumble of politics, but this strikes me as beyond the pale.” The McConnell campaign, in response, defended the photo by claiming the graveyard display was put up by supporters as an “homage” to a cartoon in the Louisville Courier Journal. “Amy McGrath has tweeted this very cartoon several times and it’s shameful that she’s pretending not to know exactly what it is referencing in order to politicize a tragedy,” Kevin Golden, McConnell’s campaign manager, said in a statement.

The outrage over the McConnell campaign's seemingly tone deaf tweet is exacerbated by McConnell's own role in the mass shooting epidemic, as Americans have put the blame on the Senate majority leader for blocking House-passed gun control legislation from coming up for a vote on the Senate floor. The hashtag #MassacreMitch trended on Twitter in the wake of the El Paso and Dayton, Ohio, shootings, as critics urged McConnell to finally offer more than “thoughts and prayers.” “The House passed a bill more than 5 months ago to require basic background checks on gun sales — the very least we can do to keep our loved ones safe. How many more people need to die before @SenateMajLdr McConnell puts aside @NRA interests and gives that bill a vote?” 2020 candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren tweeted. Though the senator tweeted messages of sympathy for the victims of the weekend's mass shootings, McConnell has yet to respond to growing Democratic calls that he reconvene the Senate for an emergency session to vote on gun control legislation. "Leader McConnell, do the right thing," Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said during a Sunday press conference. "Call an emergency session. Wherever the senators are. Put the House bill on the floor, and it will pass. And the president, my guess is, will have no choice but to sign it. And maybe we can do something to begin dealing with gun laws in a rational way.”

Last weekend's tragic shootings only intensified an already-brewing sense of public outrage against McConnell, who has more recently faced growing criticism—and the new nickname “Moscow Mitch”—over his refusal to bring election security bills to the Senate floor. While the Kentucky senator has often seemed impervious to personal attacks, embracing monickers like the “Grim Reaper” and “Cocaine Mitch,” the attacks over election security and McConnell's perceived Russian sympathies have seemingly gotten to the Senate leader, inspiring a recent 30-minute tirade against his critics on the Senate floor. “The outrage industrial complex doesn’t let a little thing like reality get in [the media's] way,” McConnell complained, blasting the media for what he called “modern-day McCarthyism.” “They saw the perfect opportunity to distort and tell lies and fuel the flames of partisan hatred, and so they did.”