“I think there’s probably a greater likelihood the House flips than the Senate,” McConnell said at a Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce luncheon in Florence, Kentucky.
“Senate races are just different. They’re statewide,” he added. “Candidate quality has a lot to do with the outcome.”
But then the Fox News host laid out what he thought was the real problem with the GOP Senate leader’s remarks: “Maybe Mitch McConnell hates Donald Trump so much that he would probably rather see Trump-endorsed candidates lose, because he thinks that might hurt Donald Trump?”
Bingo! Hannity finally got something right. Trump’s Senate picks are floundering, and McConnell is laying the blame at the former President’s door.
For his part, it’s unlikely that McConnell is hoping that all the Trump-backed Senate candidates lose. The senator from Kentucky is a living, breathing political machine who understands that only if his party controls the Senate can he set the agenda in that chamber — from its legislative goals to confirmations of federal judges and Supreme Court justices.
Still, there’s no disputing that some of Trump’s hand-picked candidates for Senate are flailing, and McConnell apparently wants Republican voters to know who to blame if the GOP doesn’t win the Senate: Donald J. Trump.
Few things would likely make McConnell happier.
