You’ve gotta hand it to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell: When he lies, he lies big.

It takes some serious big balls to spit out a lie like this one.

Lying like this takes some major chutzpah, the likes of which was on full display Tuesday when he correctly pointed out a prominent example of a Republican committing likely criminal election fraud, and then hilariously tried to blame it all on the Democrats.

Speaking about what is unfolding in North Carolina’s 9th Congressional District — where GOP ballot stuffers were caught essentially handing last November’s midterm race to Republican candidate Mark Harris — McConnell insisted that actually this was all the Democrats’ fault for not backing Republican’s long-running voter suppression efforts.

“For years and years, every Republican who dared to call for common sense safeguards for Americans’ ballots was demonized by Democrats and their allies. We were hit with left-wing talking points insisting that voter fraud wasn’t real. Never happens, they said. That fraud just didn’t happen. That modest efforts to ensure that voters are who they say they are and are voting in a proper place were really some sinister right-wing plot to prevent people from voting.

“So now as you might expect, now that an incident of very real voter fraud has become national news and the Republican candidate seems — seems — to have benefited, these long-standing Democratic talking points have been really quiet. Haven’t heard much lately from Democrats about how fraud never happens. They’ve gone silent.”

Yep, you heard that right.

McConnell, of course, is full of crap. Voter fraud, the sort the GOP and Donald Trump have so enthusiastically railed about, is largely a non-issue.

What happened in North Carolina, on the other hand, isn’t voter fraud at all.

It’s election fraud—something completely different, and much more insidious.

There, a paid GOP operative enacted an organized plan to collect un-filled absentee ballots and write in the Republican candidate’s name.

This wasn’t, as McConnell would have you believe, a few people voting in the wrong district, or casting their ballots under false pretenses. This was a coordinated effort—by a candidate’s own hired firm—to swing an election.

WATCH:

On Senate floor, @senatemajldr McConnell shamelessly blames Dems for Mark Harris' election fraud in North Carolina, because Dems haven't supported voter ID laws. pic.twitter.com/PGZw23p4PU

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 26, 2019