Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) buried Stephen Bannon at a press conference on Friday, blaming him for the Republican’s loss in Alabama’s special election to fill Jeff Sessions’ Senate seat.
A reporter had asked McConnell if he blamed Bannon for Democrat Doug Jones winning the special election in Alabama, prompting McConnell to throw a punch at the Breitbart executive.
“Well, let me just say this: The political genius on display throwing away a seat in the reddest state in America is hard to ignore,” McConnell said.
McConnell, along with the majority of Senate Republicans, endorsed Luther Strange for the Senate seat and had warned that Roy Moore would have a hard time winning.
On September 22, President Donald Trump predicted that Moore would lose the Senate race as he campaigned for Strange:
I have to say this, and you understand this and just look at the polls. Luther will definitely win. Roy has a very good chance of not winning in the general election. It’s all about the general. Don’t forget, we don’t stop here. You have an election coming up the day this is over. So this is over on Tuesday. On Wednesday morning, the new race begins. You’ve got to beat a Democrat. Luther is going to win easily and Roy’s going to have a hard time winning.
McConnell said that he and other Republican leaders will be active in GOP primaries in 2018 to prevent a repeat of past elections where poor candidates defeated rivals from the GOP establishment in primaries, only to be crushed in general elections.
“I and people who are allied with me — and I believe the White House will be in the same place I am — want to nominate people who can actually win,” McConnell said.
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