One on one with democratic Senate candidate Amy McGrath

WNKY: Starting off with kind of a tough question, Amy Coney Barrett was confirmed yesterday, going to ask you directly, would you have voted for her? Why or why not?

McGrath: Well I made it very clear that I don’t think the Senate should have been voting on any nominee right now. We’re in the middle of a national crisis where 225,000 Americans have died. Senator McConnell himself said four years ago with eight months to an election with an open seat on the Supreme Court he said let the people decide. Here we are, eight days to an election, and he rammed through a Supreme Court nominee. And what’s even worse than that total hypocrisy is the fact that that’s not what the Senate should be working on right now. Kentuckians need aid, we’ve known that the coronavirus was not going to end at the end of July. And instead, he went on vacation all summer long, and instead of working on this aid that the country needs to get through the coronavirus, for businesses, for families, for schools, he’s playing politics. So no, I would not be voting. I think that’s the wrong thing to do right now we should be working on aid. Let’s get through this national crisis first. 

WNKY: Got it, so you’re saying you would not have voted in general or for Barrett at all?

McGrath: Yeah I don’t think that anyone should be voting on a Supreme Court nominee right now. I don’t think it’s the right thing to do. We had members of the Senate say they were gonna vote for up or down for the nominee before the name even came out. This is literally the system that Mitch McConnell has built. A system that’s worked for 200 years he has polarized it and made it so dysfunctional that now we’re just in our camps and the red camp and the blue camp and it doesn’t even matter who the nominee is. This is wrong. We’ve got to fix this, we’ve gotta do it. But the first most important thing we have to do is tackle the coronavirus. Because that’s what’s destroying our economy and it’s killing Americans. 

WNKY: Since you mentioned coronavirus, you’ve said before that McConnell isn’t doing enough for COVID relief- why do you think it’s important to provide more financial relief?

McGrath: Well it’s not Amy that believes we need more financial relief and resources. It’s like hundreds and thousands of economists that don’t want our economy to go into a depression right now. We’re teetering on that and it’s also Kentucky families. You know we have millions of Americans that have filed for unemployment in the last months. I’ve got fellow Kentuckians, some who I went to school with, who lost their job back in March. And the jobs are not there. Senator McConnell, I know he spends a lot of time in Washington D.C., but he’s not looking after Kentuckians right now. We have 300,000 Kentuckians that don’t have healthcare in the middle of a pandemic and he’s still trying to take away healthcare. That’s what the Supreme Court nominee was all about, taking away more healthcare for people. So yes we need more aid. We also need to have a national plan for testing and tracing. Why? We have five percent of the world’s population, we have 25 percent of the world’s COVID cases. We are losing anywhere from 500 to 1000 Americans a day. At the height of WW2 we were only losing 250 Americans a day and we didn’t stop fighting that war, we took it on. Senator McConnell just wants to give up, you know. He doesn’t want to help us, he doesn’t want to come up with a plan to mitigate this virus. I have a plan to do that, to help businesses, to help families. And we need that now more than ever. 36 years in Washington, we’re in the middle of a national crisis and he’s still playing politics. It’s almost unbelievable. 

WNKY: And bringing him up,  you even have the sign behind you. He said your campaign is about “you’re a marine, a mom and he’s been there for too long.” And you agree with him. Why?

McGrath: Well one he has been there too long. 36 years is long enough. He has turned into someone who has represented Washington, D.C. and the swamp that he built more than he represents Kentucky. And yes I’m a marine. everything that I’ve done in my life as an adult has been to serve this country. I swore an oath six times to defend the constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic. I know what it’s like to protect and defend this country. I know what it’s like to put this country and Kentucky above my political party and my own personal power and wealth. I do not believe he does. and the third piece, I’m a mom. Yeah, I’m a mother of three small kids and you know what that informs everything that I do in my life and how I look at things. So as a senator you know the thing I’m going to look at the most in every piece of legislation. How does it help Kentucky’s families? How does it help us? You know I’m somebody that deals with having to homeschool my kids right now in the middle of a coronavirus. I had to do that back in the spring just as much as anybody else. You know I get it. I’m someone who understands the value of childcare, paid family leave, universal pre-K, healthcare. If you don’t have your health, you don’t have anything. I don’t think Senator McConnell gets that. I mean he wouldn’t be trying to continually take healthcare away from people in the middle of a coronavirus if he understood that. 

WNKY: And touching on what’s important to you, what’s the first thing you will do if you are elected or the most important thing?

McGrath: Well I think it’s what’s the most important thing for the people of Kentucky. And right now as we have a crisis of epic proportions. If you think about it, this is the most major international crisis in a century where no one in the world is looking to the United States for leadership. We need to have leaders that tackle this coronavirus, that do it with a plan to mitigate it, to save American lives and to save our economy and help working families get through this right now. My loyalty is gonna be to families, it’s gonna be to workers, regular people. not wall street, not special interest groups. Not the wealthiest one percent. That’s where Mitch McConnell’s loyalty lies. So the number one issue is coronavirus. tackling it, keeping people afloat. and then it’s fixing our healthcare system. The Affordable Care Act was not a perfect piece of legislation. We’re Americans, we fix it. We make it better. We don’t undermine it for purely political reasons for a decade. Trying to throw it away for a decade legislatively. and now he couldn’t do it legislatively so he’s trying to do it in the courts. Why? Let’s fix it. Let’s give people more choice with a public option, that you could buy an uncle sam plan if you want to. Let’s get prescription drug prices down. You know I have a big idea, you know Medicare, big pharma they make a ton. The pharmaceutical industry makes a ton off of Medicare. Let’s allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices from them. that’s a great idea. Who stops that? Senator McConnell stops that. Well, why? He gets the most money from big pharma than any member of Congress that’s why. And this would bring down prices for Kentuckians. Everywhere I go people tell me I’m paying 1500 bucks a month for my prescription medication or 3000, I can’t afford it anymore, I have to go to Canada to get prescription medications. And the thing about it is this is bipartisan. There are six bipartisan bills that passed the house already that even President Trump would sign because President Trump has said getting prescription drug prices down is one of his number one priorities. He can’t ever get it done. Why? Mitch McConnell. That’s the kind of corruption that we’re all tired of. And that’s not a left thing or a right thing, it’s not red or blue. It’s just 36 years man, we gotta get rid of him. The corruption is out of control and it’s literally hurting us here in Kentucky. 

WNKY: We’ve talked a lot about your message and everything you stand for. It’s the final week of voting, if you could sum it up, what is your message to undecided voters?

McGrath: Kentucky deserves better. our country deserves better. When you have a Senator that’s going to represent you and your interests, we have better healthcare, we have lower prescription drug prices, we have investment and infrastructure of the future, broadband, cell phone coverage, making sure that we invest back in us. We don’t have a Senator that sells out to big business sells out to corporations and the wealthiest one percent. And it comes down to this very fact. look around. Are things getting any better? If things are better for you than they were 30 years ago, or 6 years ago, then maybe Senator McConnell’s your man. But for so many of us it’s not getting any better. He doesn’t have a plan for the future. He hasn’t had a plan for the last 36 years and look at where we’re at. COVID cases are on the rise, prescription drug prices are on the rise, copays are on the rise for healthcare. He’s still trying to throw it away for people. Our infrastructure here in Kentucky is some of the worst in the country. We have some of the lowest wages in the county with the highest cancer rates in the country, some of the poorest counties in the country, yet one of the richest Senators. Enough is enough, we deserve better. 

WNKY: Last question for you, another thing McConnell has said. He has stated that you support statehood for Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico. Is this true? if so, how would you make that happen and why are you for it?

McGrath: You know what, Senator McConnell is more interested in other states than he is in Kentucky. I’m interested in getting us the things that we need. When I go around Kentucky, no one asks me those questions. Only Senator McConnell asks me about that. You know why? because for him, it’s all about his power, it’s all about Washington D.C. politics. I care about Kentucky. Am I somebody that believes that we should have no taxation without representation? Yeah so I’ve always believed in the basics of our democracy. That anyone who is an American should be represented. So sure we ought to have a debate of how that representation happens for those Americans that are not in Kentucky. I’m okay with that debate. But you know what, it’s not the first thing on my mind right now. When COVID cases are on the rise and we have 230,000 Americans dead and we have an economy that hasn’t been this bad since the Great Depression. So what I would say to Senator McConnell is keep your eye on the ball. Your eye’s been off the ball for a long time. And here we are and look at where we’re at. You know we need Senators that care about us and care about what Kentucky needs.