Reprinted with permission from Alternet

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has, in recent weeks, been a vigorous defender of the filibuster — making it clear that he would use it to defeat a Democratic voting rights bill. At a news conference on Tuesday, a reporter asked McConnell about the possibility of Republicans using the filibuster to "make it harder for Black people to vote." And his response is being lambasted on Twitter.

McConnell said of the filibuster, "Historians do not agree — it has no racial history at all. None. So, there's no dispute among historians about that."

McConnell told reporter Eva McKend:

After video of McConnell's response was tweeted, it didn't take long for him to be inundated with negative comments from Twitter users. Here are some of them: