McConnell suggests 'discipline' for Dem senators pressuring Supreme Court over Alito flags

• Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., suggested that the Supreme Court should "discipline" Sens. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I.
• Those senators and other lawmakers have called for Justice Samuel Alito to recuse himself from key cases related to former President Donald Trump.
• McConnell argued that Blumenthal and Whitehouse were "potentially engaged in unethical professional conduct before the court."

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., suggested Wednesday that the Supreme Court should punish at least two Democratic senators over their calls for Justice Samuel Alito to recuse himself from key cases related to former President Donald Trump.

Sens. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island are bound by court rules that "provide for discipline against those who engage in conduct unbecoming an officer of the court," McConnell said on the Senate floor.

Numerous Democrats in both chambers of Congress have called out Alito following reports that flags associated with pro-Trump efforts to overturn the 2020 election results were flown at his homes.

But McConnell singled out Blumenthal and Whitehouse because they are members of the Supreme Court bar.

He argued that the two Democrats ran afoul of the American Bar Association's code of judicial conduct by "privately" asking Chief Justice John Roberts "to change the course of pending litigation."

They are therefore "potentially engaged in unethical professional conduct before the court," McConnell said of Blumenthal and Whitehouse, both of whom are members of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Whitehouse, in a statement to CNBC, said, "When Mitch McConnell, Leonard Leo and the Wall Street Journal editorial page