‘Georgia Was a Fiasco’: McConnell Signals He’ll Be Willing to Get Heavily Involved in 2022 GOP Primaries to ‘Actually Win in November’
Sen. Mitch McConnell (left) and Rep. Kevin McCarthy (right) with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office. Photo credit: Erin Schaff, Pool/Getty Images
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell offered the strongest signal yet that he was angry at former President Donald Trump for costing him the Senate and that he personally step in to head off pro-Trump extremist candidates in the 2022 GOP primaries.
In a new interview with the Wall Street Journal, the Kentucky Republican not-so-subtly lashed out at Trump — though not by name — and echoed conservatives who have blamed the former president’s election fraud conspiracy-mongering for the double losses of GOP incumbents David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler in the Georgia Senate runoff elections. That pair of defeats, coupled with President Joe Biden’s win, flipped Senate control to the Democrats.
“Georgia was a fiasco,” McConnell told the Journal, adding: “We all know why that happened.”
The Senate’s top Republican then indicated that he was willing to forego the traditional norm of party leaders not getting involved in GOP primaries — if it were to mean stopping a potentially disastrous general election loss.
“Getting candidates who can actually win in November,” is the priority, McConnell said in the interview. “That may or may not involve trying to affect the outcome of the primaries.”
Some Republicans who are squarely in the Trump wing of the party might easily win even a general election in deeply conservative areas. But such candidates risk complicating the party’s efforts elsewhere in more moderate areas of the country. If Mr. McConnell moves too aggressively against a pro-Trump candidate he deems too close to the fringes of the party, he could invite a backlash from the base.
But Mr. McConnell has said his party has suffered in the past from candidates who won Republican primaries but failed general elections. “I personally don’t care what kind of Republican they are, what kind of lane they consider themselves in,” Mr. McConnell said. “What I care about is electability.”
The Senate Minority Leader didn’t rule out the chance that Trump could back a potentially palatable candidate, but he has recently shown his willingness to publicly call out fellow Congressional Republicans who he thinks are spreading “loony lies” and furthering the former president’s deranged lies.
