Kentucky’s largest newspaper slammed Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) for allowing his staff to bar a reporter from a press conference earlier in the week.
In a blistering new editorial on Wednesday The Courier-Journal of Louisville, Kentucky criticized McConnell and his staff for blocking Joe Sonka, news editor for the liberal leaning LEO Weekly alt-weekly newspaper from attending a press conference featuring McConnell and Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-NH).
The editorial board of the paper wrote:
No one with the campaign offered any plausible answers why.
The most implausible came from Mr. McConnell. Asked at the press conference by reporters who managed to get in why Mr. Sonka was excluded, Mr. McConnell said he didn’t know, giving some credibility to critics who accuse him of being out of touch.
In an interview with TPM, Sonka detailed how McConnell staffers initially said that there would not be enough space at the event even though other attendees said there was plenty of room. According to Sonka, when he still tried to go to the event a police officer intervened and said that he had been told by the hotel staff to keep Sonka out of the event.
When Sonka’s story caught national attention, McConnell’s campaign said he had not been invited to the event.
