‘We Can Do Better’: McConnell Tells Trump His Political Clout Is ‘Diminished’
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Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said former President Donald Trump’s political clout has “diminished” and the GOP can “do better” after disappointing midterm results.
“Here’s what I think has changed: I think the former president’s political clout has diminished,” the senator told NBC News this week about Trump.
McConnell and Trump have taken shots at each other before, but the senator appears ready to completely move on from Trump, despite the fact that Trump already announced he’s vying for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024.
“We can do a better job with less potential interference. The former president may have other things to do,” McConnell said.
The Republican also reiterated his concern over “candidate quality” from Republicans in the midterms.
“Oddly enough, even though that subset of voters did not approve of President Biden, they didn’t have enough confidence in us in several instances to give us the majority we needed,” he said.
The GOP leader also accused the president of dealing Republicans a bad hand in the midterms, explaining he stayed clear of most races feeling the former president had too much influence.
“In the other states, Trump’s support was so significant — we could have spent a lot of money, maybe trying to come up with a different candidate and maybe not succeeding,” he said. “And so my conclusion was that everywhere else, we had to play with the cards that were dealt.”
McConnell also recently found himself at odds with Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) over the omnibus spending package, with McConnell touting it as a success and McCarthy promising to kill legislation from senators supporting the spending, if he becomes Speaker of the House.
McConnell told NBC, however, he has a good relationship with McCarthy and wants him to win his Speaker race.
“I have a really good relationship with McCarthy, but he’s got a difficult hand to play. We all want him to succeed and hope he does,” he said.
