McConnell Responds to Bannon’s #War: ‘Winners Make Policy and Losers Go Home’

Ken MeyerOct 16th, 2017, 2:58 pm
 

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell hit back at Steve Bannon today over the Breitbart chief’s declarations of war against the establishment wing of the Republican party.

McConnell and Trump held a press conference today at the White House, where they insisted that the Republican Party is “very, very unified” despite the latest indications of inner-party turmoil. This came hours after Trump gave remarks where he expressed understanding for Bannon’s frustrations and his plans to do battle with traditional Republicans who don’t fall in line behind the president.

In the Rose Garden, Trump spoke again about how he has a “very good relationship” with his former White House chief strategist. Trump said Bannon was following the course he thought best for himself, though he mentioned that he would try and “talk [Bannon] out” of his plans to go after GOPers facing primary elections.

McConnell is one of Bannon’s top enemies, and he offered some comments of his own to accompany the president. The senator defended his record in Congress, and apparently took a swipe at Bannon by saying that the Breitbart chief doesn’t really know how to maintain a political majority:

“My goal as the leader of the Republican Party in the senate is to keep us in the majority. The way you do that is not complicated. You have to nominate people who can actually win, because winners make policy and losers go home. We changed the business model in 2014. We nominated people who could win everywhere. We took the majority in the Senate. We had one mission in 2016: we kept the majority in the senate. So our operating approach will be to support our incumbents, and in open seats, to seek to help nominate people who can actually win in November. That’s my approach.”

These remarks come after Bannon helped Roy Moore win the Republican primary in Alabama’s senate race. Moore triumphed over Luther Strange, the incumbent aligned with the McConnell wing of the GOP.

Watch above, via CNN and NBC.

[Image via screengrab]

— —

>> Follow Ken Meyer (@KenMeyer91) on Twitter

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!

Tags: