Tagged: Mitch McConnell

The Mother Jones reporter who uncovered a secret recording of Republican Senator Mitch McConnell’s campaign meeting discussing ways to attack actress Ashley Judd's mental health says a Kentucky Democrat urged him not to write the story.

Journalist David Corn is Washington Bureau Chief for the magazine and appeared on the Diane Rehm Show Monday morning to discuss how he obtained the tape and its contents. He is also the reporter was broke the infamous "47 percent" tape of former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

Corn says before the original April 9 story about the recordings came out a Kentucky source who "caught wind" of the report discouraged him from writing it and warned the audio would ultimately benefit McConnell.

"There was a person in Kentucky who was sympathetic to the Democrats—let me put it that way—I can’t identify the person. But who got wind that I was going to do the story and contacted me and asked me not to. Why? Because this person wisely predicted that McConnell would come out and make himself the victim and it would help McConnell," he says.

A liberal advocacy group is launching a controversial new ad targeting Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell and his opposition to gun control measure that uses an al-Qaeda recruitment video.

Americans United for Change is behind the 30-second spot, which features American-born al-Qaeda spokesman Adam Gadahn explaining how lax U.S. laws do not require background checks to obtain firearms.

In the recruitment video, Gadahn calls on Muslims living in the United State to carry out acts of terror and that guns can easily be obtained at local conventions.

The narrator goes on to explain McConnell is against background checks as part of a series of proposed gun control measures in the Senate. He asks: "who does agree with Mitch?"

Watch:

With the news broken that Progress Kentucky was behind the secret recording of a strategy meeting between Senator Mitch McConnell and his campaign staff, there are a few questions that remain.

What happens to the people who made the tape?

Jacob Conway with the Jefferson County Democratic Party says Progress Kentucky founder Shawn Reilly and then-volunteer Curtis Morrison made the recording. 

A secret recording of a campaign strategy session between U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell and his advisors was taped by leaders of the Progress Kentucky super PAC, says a longtime local Democratic operative.

Mother Jones Magazine released the tape this week. The meeting itself took place on Feb. 2.