Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said he is against reparations for slavery by citing, among other things, the election of Barack Obama to the presidency in 2008.

McConnell took questions at a Senate Republican Agenda press conference Tuesday afternoon, and was asked about the issue of reparations for slavery.

“There’s going to be a hearing on Juneteenth about reparations for slavery, tomorrow,” a reporter told McConnell, referring to a House Judiciary Committee hearing on HR 40, which establishes a commission to study reparations.

“I’m wondering, where do you stand on that issue, do you believe in reparations for slavery, and if not should there be a public apology from Congress or from the president in recognition of the theft of labor?” she asked McConnell.

“Yeah, I don’t think reparations for something that happened 150 years ago, for whom none of us currently living are responsible, is a good idea,” McConnell said, adding “We’ve tried to deal with our original sin of slavery by fighting a civil war, by passing landmark civil rights legislation, we’ve elected an African American president.”

McConnell opposed Obama’s election, reportedly demanded unyielding opposition to Obama before he even took office, and publicly vowed to make Obama “a one-term president.”

“I think we are always a work in progress in this country, but no one currently alive was responsible for that, and I don’t think we should be trying to figure out how to compensate for it,” McConnell continued. “First of all it would be pretty hard to figure out who to compensate.”

“We’ve had waves of immigrants, as well, who have come to the country and experience traumatic discrimination of one kind or another, so no I don’t think reparations are a good idea,” McConnell said.

WATCH:

If McConnell sees Obama’s election as a redemptive act in response to the “original sin of slavery,” where in our history does that situate McConnell’s obstruction during O’s admin, his vow to make him a one term president, his Merrick Garland power grab? pic.twitter.com/z0KQhy8beh

— southpaw (@nycsouthpaw) June 18, 2019