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McConnell on reparations for slavery: Not a ‘good idea’

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says he is against reparations for slavery in part because it would be hard to know whom to pay.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, joined by his GOP leadership team, answers questions on Iran and the withdrawal of acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan, during a news conference at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, June 18, 2019.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, joined by his GOP leadership team, answers questions on Iran and the withdrawal of acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan, during a news conference at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, June 18, 2019.Read moreJ. Scott Applewhite / AP
    by Laurie Kellman, The Associated Press
    Published 

WASHINGTON — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says he is against reparations for slavery in part because it would be hard to know whom to pay.

The Kentucky Republican told reporters at his weekly news conference on Tuesday that "No, I don't think reparations are a good idea." He added that slavery "happened 150 years ago."

McConnell said the U.S. has “tried to deal with our original sin of slavery by fighting a civil war, by passing landmark civil rights legislation,” and by electing Barack Obama the nation’s first black president.

He also said that “it would be hard to figure out who to compensate,” and that “no one currently alive was responsible for that.”

McConnell spoke a day before a Democratic-led House subcommittee was scheduled to hold a hearing on reparations.