Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) attempted to whitewash the history of the filibuster this week by claiming that it’s not a racist tool and never has been, only for historians to crush him with facts.

McConnell has been desperate to keep the filibuster intact, even going so far as to threaten “chaos” and revenge by Republicans if Democrats were to scrap the odious rule that is found nowhere in the Constitution and has been used for decades by conservatives to obstruct bills in the Senate.

On Tuesday, McConnell once again defended the filibuster by telling reporters that the filibuster does not have a racist history and claimed that historians agree with him.

“It has no racial history at all. None. So, there’s no dispute among historians about that,” he declared.

Here’s the video via Twitter:

The truth, however, is that historians overwhelmingly agree that the filibuster is racist and they spoke out in force to counter McConnell’s lies.

Other historians even provided examples.

As an amateur historian, I strongly concur. The filibuster has been a tool used by racist conservative lawmakers for over 150 years now to obstruct legislation, Cabinet nominees, and other Senate business that moves the country forward, especially if the legislation benefits people of color. Republicans dubiously used the filibuster to obstruct Democrats from 2009 through 2016 in a scheme to sabotage former President Barack Obama, the first African-American president in our country’s history. Now they want to do the same to President Joe Biden’s agenda of popular policies.

The filibuster is indisputably racist and should be ended. The fact that McConnell is lying about it to protect it is all you need to know about just how ridiculous, extreme, and bigoted the filibuster is and has been.

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