(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) Former President Donald Trump’s plan to clinch the White House and regain control of the U.S. Senate in 2024 could be foiled by political opposition stemming directly from Capitol Hill, this time from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.
McConnell, who reversed his support for Trump after the embattled 2020 election, plans to regain power in the Senate through races in West Virginia, Ohio and Montana. McConnell, however, sees the former president as an obstacle to defeating President Joe Biden and gaining a majority primarily because of Trump-picked candidates, Politico reported.
“McConnell spoke very clearly on … his enormous disagreements with the [former] president. And I think the personal attacks at his wife, Elaine Chao, have really rubbed Sen. McConnell the wrong way,” Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., told Politico, adding that McConnell “is just looking forward. He’s not really focused on that disagreement of the past. We all know where he stands.”
Trump’s plan to win a red wave in 2022 faced opposition from McConnell, with the minority leader refusing to fund the campaigns of Trump-picked candidates for Senate ahead of the midterm elections.
This move, critics said, split the Republican ticket and effectively handed Democrats the keys to a Senate majority.
The former president could face the same obstacle ahead of 2024. McConnell recruited incumbent Gov. Jim Justice of West Virginia to challenge Sen. Joe Manchin, a Democrat.
Justice, who announced his official Senate bid on Thursday, is expected to face Rep. Alex Mooney. Justice and Mooney received Trump’s endorsement for their respective re-elections in 2020 and 2022, but many contend the similarities end there. Moody has ripped Justice for his COVID lockdowns and tax hikes. Trump has yet officially announced an endorsement.
Last year, the former president centered his 2024 announcement around the midterms, where he expected an anti-Biden red wave.
But once Democrats gained a seat in the Senate, Trump —alongside his former adviser Stephen Miller and Arizona senate candidate Blake Master— accused McConnell of sabotaging the 2022 midterms.
“It’s Mitch McConnell’s fault. Spending money to defeat great Republican candidates instead of backing Blake Masters and others was a big mistake,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Nov. 13, 2022.
McConnell has refused to say whether he would support Trump if he clinched the GOP nominee, claiming he is focusing on the Senate majority instead.
