“I wonder if [Republicans] victory, I should take all the credit,” Donald Trump said in an interview just before the midterm elections. “And if they lose, I shouldn’t be blamed at all.”
Now that the results are in and Republicans have suffered historic losses this election cycle while failing to flip the Senate, Trump is trying to blame Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell for the party’s dismal performance, according to a CNN report.
“He’s not asking specific questions, but he wants to see more Republicans hold Mitch accountable,” a person close to Trump told CNN.
According to CNN’s sources, in phone conversations with allies, Trump lashed out at McConnell, alleging that he wasted money in races where Republicans faced an uphill battle, ignoring candidates who had a better chance of winning. Trump aides cited the Alaska Senate race, where the McConnell-aligned Senate Leadership Fund Super PAC spent $5 million to attack Republican incumbent Kelly Tshibaka, who was challenging incumbent GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski; Tshibaka now leads Murkowski by almost 1.5%, giving her an advantage in the upcoming runoff election.
Trump has also attacked McConnell for declining support for GOP Senate candidate Blake Masters, a Trump pick who lost to incumbent Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly in Arizona.
Stephen Law, a former McConnell aide who runs the Senate Leadership Fund, suggested that the blame should fall at Trump’s feet. The president hosted a series of rallies for his favored candidates as Election Day neared, which Law seemed to find a distraction. “Keeping the focus on Joe Biden and the Democrats who voted for inflationary spending and who supported soft-on-crime policies, those are the priorities,” Law told CNN. “And to the extent that there is any distraction from that, it diminishes our ability to make that argument.”
Trump has endorsed more than 20 candidates this election cycle. So far seven have won, but another nine have been defeated. Five matches remain to be announced.
