Mitch McConnell’s Vote Against Protecting Interracial Marriage Is Raising Eyebrows, Due To His Interracial Marriage

The Respect for Marriage Act passed the Senate this week, meaning that same-sex and interracial marriages will continue to be protected and afforded the same rights (along with the responsibilities) as what Candace Cameron Bure considers to be “traditional marriage.” The legislation was a bipartisan effort, which Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH) recently summed in a statement via his website:

“The Respect for Marriage Act is a needed step to provide millions of loving couples in same-sex and interracial marriages the certainty that they will continue to enjoy the freedoms, rights, and responsibilities afforded to all other marriages. Through bipartisan collaboration, we’ve crafted commonsense language to confirm that this legislation fully respects and protects Americans’ religious liberties and diverse beliefs, while leaving intact the core mission of the legislation to protect marriage equality.”

As USA Today reports, the bill passed with 12 Republicans coming together with Democrats to knock this thing into official existence. 37 Republican senators did not agree, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell happened to be one of them. As many know, McConnell recently dealt with Donald Trump’s “ridiculously racist” attack on Mitch’s wife, Elaine Chao, who is Asian-American and also happens to be the ex-U.S. Secretary for Transportation under the Trump administration.

Mitch voted “no” Respect for Marriage Act, and he probably actually meant to vote no on protecting gay marriage. In effect, though, he also voted against protecting interracial marriage, and that’s causing eyebrows to raise for a few reasons. Real questions here: did he forget that Elaine is Asian-American? Does he consider her to be white? And the suggestions only grow worse from there, so people aired it all out on Twitter.

Mitch recently won his reelection for Senate Minority Leader, so we’ll be seeing plenty of him as usual.