McConnell on Tea Party Challengers: ‘We Are Going to Crush Them’

At CPAC last week, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell took the stage holding a gun to fire up the crowd. Well, surprisingly, that may not have done the trick, because McConnell said in a recent interview with The New York Times that he believes Republicans will “crush” conservative primary challengers across the country.

The Times report says GOP leaders are taking a hardline against conservative challengers in tough states, especially after losses in 2010 and 2012 in races the party believed would be easy victories.

“I think we are going to crush them everywhere,” Mr. McConnell, the Senate Republican leader, said in an interview, referring to the network of activist organizations working against him and two Republican incumbents in Kansas and Mississippi while engaging in a handful of other contests. “I don’t think they are going to have a single nominee anywhere in the country.”

One group McConnell has targeted over the past few months is the Senate Conservatives Fund, and the founder of that group, Matt Hoskins, told the Times, “Mitch McConnell is clearly in trouble in this primary or he wouldn’t be attacking Matt Bevin and declaring war on conservatives.”

Matt Bevin is the businessman challenging McConnell this year in his Kentucky Republican primary.

[h/t HotAir]

[photo via Gage Skidmore]

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Follow Josh Feldman on Twitter: @feldmaniac

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