'Fentanyl Mitch': Truck Billboard Slams McConnell for Ignoring Fentanyl Crisis

A truck billboard slamming Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) as “Fentanyl Mitch” was seen driving through Louisville, Kentucky, on Tuesday.

“Question: Why hasn’t Mitch McConnell done more to stop the Chinese fentanyl crisis in Kentucky?” the truck billboard’s screen showed before flashing: “Answer: Follow the money.”

Notably, the background of the text was red with the five yellow stars seen on the Chinese flag to the left of the message.

The other side of the truck billboard featured a photo of McConnell next to the name “Fentanyl Mitch” and the word “Cocaine” crossed out.

The letter “M” in the name “Mitch” on the billboard was a blue M-labeled pill like the fentanyl-laced M30 pills that are light blue in color with an “M” imprinted on one side and “30” on the other.

The billboard’s reference to “cocaine” harkens back to a 2018 Republican West Virginia Senate candidate named Don Blankenship who famously nicknamed the Kentucky senator “Cocaine Mitch” in a campaign attack ad.

The billboard truck was an ad for Breitbart News Senior Contributor and Government Accountability Institute President Peter Schweizer’s new book, Blood Money: Why the Powerful Turn a Blind Eye While China Kills Americans.

The truck was seen driving past McConnell’s Louisville office and past the Gene Snyder Federal Building in Louisville, Kentucky. It was also spotted driving through downtown Louisville on Main Street outside the famous Louisville Slugger Museum.

In Blood Money, Schweizer explains the financial ties that McConnell has to China through his wife Elaine Chao’s family and specifically through his father-in-law’s lucrative shipping business that has strong financial ties to the Chinese government.

Schweizer writes in Blood Money:

The Chao family runs an international shipping business that is heavily dependent on the good graces of the Chinese government. The family businesses, Foremost Group and its subsidiaries, do considerable work with some of the companies named in this book, including Hutchison Port Holdings, which operates ports around the world and as we’ve shown, has been the subject of concern for decades about smuggling activities.

As Breitbart News reported:

Hutchison enjoys a close working relationship with the Chinese government and military while conducting significant business with the Chao family businesses, Schweizer documents in his book. He also reveals that the company has deep ties with Chinese organized crime. And Hutchison has been flagged by U.S. officials for problems with smuggling weapons and other prohibited items, according to U.S. government reports he cites.

In Mexico, Hutchison controls and operates the international terminals in Manzanillo and Puerto de Lazaro Cardenas. U.S. officials believe 90 percent of fentanyl precursors arriving in Mexico from China come through Manzanillo alone, Schweizer writes. And the fentanyl produced there ends up in American communities.

Schweizer notes in Blood Money that these financial connections could present a potential conflict of interest for McConnell that may prevent him from seriously confronting China’s complicity in the fentanyl crisis.

“The family’s dependence on Beijing’s favor for the operation of their business is real. Were Senator McConnell to take action that angered the Chinese leadership, they could effectively destroy the Chao family business overnight,” Schweizer writes.

Blood Money: Why the Powerful Turn a Blind Eye While China Kills Americans is available now in hardcover, ebook, and audiobook.

You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Facebook and X/Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.