New Reports: Recruits “Keep Saying ‘No’” To McConnell, Who Fears “Pro-Trump Rivals Get The GOP Nominations And Lose To The Democrats In November”

CNN: “GOP candidates are falling all over themselves to curry favor with Trump, not the Senate’s most powerful Republican.”

New reports continue to spotlight how McConnell is trying to “recruit candidates who have been willing to be critical of the former President into key Senate races” but that “they keep saying ‘no’” – stoking fears that “pro-Trump rivals get the GOP nominations and lose to the Democrats in November.”

See for yourself:

CNN: McConnell is trying to end-run Trump in 2022. It’s not working.
By Chris Cillizza
February 15, 2022

• Mitch McConnell may not like to talk about Donald Trump. But he’s making his feelings very clear as he tries to recruit candidates who have been willing to be critical of the former President into key Senate races.

• The only problem? They keep saying “no.”

• The latest turn-down came from Maryland Republican Gov. Larry Hogan… That came on the heels of a stunning decision last fall by New Hampshire GOP Gov. Chris Sununu to not take on Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan in 2022.

• In open seat races like Missouri, Ohio and Pennsylvania, GOP candidates are falling all over themselves to curry favor with Trump, not the Senate’s most powerful Republican.

• Unless and until McConnell can show that the GOP establishment can recruit and deliver primary victories to its preferred candidates, it’s a safe bet to assume this is still Donald Trump’s party.

NPR: Trump vs. McConnell: Latest round between GOP heavyweights has the highest stakes yet
By Ron Elving
February 15, 2022

• Last week, Mitch McConnell, the seven-term Republican senator from Kentucky who has been his party’s leader in the Senate for the past 15 years, found himself locked in a high-profile confrontation with the former president, who insists he is still the party’s leader.

• It was not the first round of this long-running bout, but it was perhaps the most clarifying and the most consequential for the elections this fall.

• It is hard to find a comparable exchange between a president and a Senate leader of the same party anywhere in U.S. history… The fratricidal nature and sharp wording of the Trump-McConnell feud are unprecedented.

• One of two scenarios that McConnell wishes to avoid could play out in the next round of voting for party leader. In one, the pro-Trump rivals who beat McConnell’s preferred candidates get to Washington and vote for someone other than McConnell for leader. Two have already pledged to do so.

• In the alternative scenario, the pro-Trump rivals get the GOP nominations and lose to the Democrats in November… Republican nominations are up for grabs in at least three states (Ohio, Pennsylvania and North Carolina) where Democrats have a shot at winning this fall.

• The problem is that McConnell is not just dealing with Trump. He is dealing with the realities of the Republican Party that elevated Trump in 2016 and have most of the party’s ranks following Trump’s lead today.

• Trump has brought the heat…  And that will be a special challenge given that this time much of the heat is now being directed at [McConnell].

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