In one of his harshest attacks on Donald Trump, Senate Minority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said the former president’s influence has “diminished” and called him a detriment to the Republican Party.
Trump has created a view of Republicans as “evil and prone to chaos,” McConnell said in an interview earlier this week with NBC News in his Capitol Hill office.
McConnell said he would no longer be intimidated by Trump’s endorsement and instead vowed to “actively” seek “quality candidates” for 2024.
“Here’s what I think has changed: I think the former president’s political influence has declined,” McConnell said dryly.
Trump’s waning power makes Republicans “less inclined to accept cards that can be dealt to us,” McConnell said.
“We can do a better job with less potential interference,” McConnell said. “The former president may have other things to do.”
McConnell accused Trump of damaging the party’s image among swing and independent voters. He said the GOP underperformed in “every state” in the midterms — including the red state of Ohio, which Republicans narrowly won — and called its performance “fatal” in Arizona, New Hampshire and Georgia.
“We lost much-needed support among independents and moderate Republicans, largely because of the perception they had of us as a party — largely from the former president — that we were pretty ugly and prone to chaos. McConnell said.
Trump has yet to respond to McConnell’s comments.
Read more of McConnell’s interview below:
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