"The mob was fed lies. They were provoked by the president and other powerful people": The passive voice is not the problem with McConnell's statement

As Greg Sargent observes, Mitch McConnell's statement yesterday about the "violent criminals" who attacked the US Capitol is obfuscatory: "The mob was fed lies. They were provoked by the president and other powerful people." Unlike many people who decry it, Sargent correctly identifies the passive voice here ("was fed"; "were provoked"), but McConnell's "by" construction actually does name the "feeders" and "provokers": "the president and other powerful people." The problem is the vagueness of "other powerful people". As Sargent correctly puts it, McConnell "elides the role" of "many members of the Senate and House GOP — and McConnell himself"; however, he does so with that vague phrase, not with the passive voice. (Andrew Shields, #111words, 20 January 2021)

 

Still from the video in the Sargent article.