Posted on 12/14/2022 12:17:33 PM PST by RandFan
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday that former President Donald Trump’s endorsements in important 2022 primaries contributed to the nominations of poor candidates who fell short in swing states.
He made the remarks at his weekly news conference, responding to a question from NBC News about whether he intends to play a more active role in selecting candidates in the 2024 election cycle, when Republicans have a friendlier map.
“We ended up having a candidate quality test,” McConnell, R-Ky., told reporters about the 2022 election. “Look at Arizona. Look at New Hampshire. And the challenging situation in Georgia, as well,” he said, mentioning states where Trump-endorsed candidates won their primaries and lost to Democrats in the general election.
In a rare move, McConnell explicitly identified Trump’s influence as being problematic in the key Senate races.
“Our ability to control the primary outcome was quite limited in ’22 because the support of the former president proved to be very decisive in these primaries. So my view was do the best you can with the cards you’re dealt. Now, hopefully, in the next cycle we’ll have quality candidates everywhere and a better outcome.”
McConnell said he saw an element of déjà vu from 2010 and 2012, when Republicans picked poor candidates and lost winnable races.
“I do think we have an opportunity to relearn, one more time: We have to have quality candidates to win in competitive Senate races. We went through this in 2010 and 2012 with Christine O’Donnell, Sharron Angle, Todd Akin and Richard Mourdock," he said, naming GOP candidates who lost their races. "And unfortunately we revisited that situation in 2022.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nbcnews.com ...
Blake Masters in AZ for one that McConnell worked against.
Some of us would rather lose with a MAGA candidate than win with a China Mitch Republicrat. The ones who won are real conservatives and that scares the swamp.
It’s not so much a “candidate quality” problem as a Senate leadership problem.
This man is such a disgrace. As much as I despise Chuck Schumer, at least he’s 100% in sync with his own, admittedly lunatic, party base.
That is a good point.
So you won’t cheer for a team if there’s one player you don’t like? When you were a kid and didn’t get your way did you take your ball and go home? Everyone I’ve ever known who was like that was a liberal.
It was the fact grown men in congress.. in the republican party, pass over the fact Trump fixed things and we would not be in a mess today if he was President.. pass over his ability and proving he is able to lead a nation... and wanted him out ... for their own selfish reasons.
They seated a senile man who was not elected and is an embarrassment to this nation.. and the gop let this happen... today families are feeling the aftermath of a coup where it was done without a shot.
I am disgusted with those men and women in congress that took it upon themselves to do what they did... the first in the history of our country... I want responsibility and consequences for that coup.. and I want a shaking up from top down.
When does the Turtle take over from Cheney on the J6 panel?
Maybe he could have actually funded the close races.
It is not Trump that worked behind the scenes to defeat Republican nominees, it was this ass McConnell. Any Republican senator that voted for traitorous McConnell to be the minority leader again should never be reelected again.
It makes me believe in conspiracies that things like the Bohemian Grove exist if Mitch McConnell was just reelected and is so powerful.
Like Pennsylvania? A cardio-thoracic surgeon vs a brain damaged left wing goon? Poor quality my arse!
I think the slate of R candidates across the nation was better than ever, far better than the D candidates. VDH has driven this point home repeatedly. The problem was NOT the quality of the candidates.
Blake Masters destroyed Mark Kelly in debate. How is he not a quality candidate?
He helped get conservative justices on the USSC and that’s the only thing good I know about him.
There are plenty of things I don’t like about my favorite President ever, but they are outweighed by the good things that come to mind.
I’m done with the GOP until McConnell is gone.
You are correct! I said that Mitch McConnell worked against Blake Masters. He did not support him with the money he needed. ( actually took money back)
So, the ‘quality’ of congressional candidates is now going to be determined by Chinese communist collaborators?
This is the equivalent of having the quality of America’s Founding Fathers being determined by Benedict Arnold.
McConnell is the sharp end of what’s left of the treasonous globalist dream of the 1970s ‘Rockefeller republicans’ one world government scheme, which requires the destruction of the US Constitution.
Not gonna happen.
McConnell is dung. No, dung has some value, McConnell has zero value.
Totally worthless POS.
The one element which cost us in 2020 and 2022 was that McConnell and other establishment Republicans such as Romney, worked against all MAGA candidates. If they had supported MAGA we would have won them all.
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