McConnell Must Recuse Himself from DOT IG Confirmation Proces
Washington, DC — The Trump administration’s firing of the Department of Transportation Acting Inspector General, Mitchell Behm, shows yet again Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s culture of corruption continues to spread.
Mitch McConnell now holds the keys to the Department of Transportation’s next inspector general nomination — a Senate confirmed position — giving him final say over who will be the person who investigates Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao’s conflicts of interest. Elaine Chao’s main conflict of interest? Doing political favors for her husband, Mitch McConnell, and his Republican caucus.
The DOT has come under fire as Kentucky not-so-mysteriously continues to receive massive shares of DOT grants and funding in politically important areas. In fact, the just-fired Inspector General was investigating whether Secretary Chao was using taxpayer money to help McConnell in his re-election bid. Now, McConnell controls who the next inspector general to investigate the self dealing will be.
"The corrupt self-dealing between Chao and McConnell is exactly how McConnell’s Washington is designed to work: amass power at all costs and use it to help wealthy special interests — the interests of the American people be damned,” said Joshua Karp of Fix Our Senate. “McConnell has a glaringly obvious conflict of interest here and should recuse himself from anything having to do with confirming a new inspector general for DOT. He should have no say in who is investigating claims that very well could implicate him.”