Mitch McConnell serves notice to 'diminished' Trump to butt out of future elections

On Friday, NBC News is reporting that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), fresh off a midterm that saw Republicans fail to achieve a majority in the U.S. Senate, is vowing former President Donald Trump will not control nominations in the Republican Party going forward.

"In a rare and pointed criticism of the former president, who's seeking a comeback in two years, McConnell said Trump’s power is on the wane and called on him to back off Senate primaries," reported Sahil Kapur. "'Here’s what I think has changed: I think the former president’s political clout has diminished,' McConnell told NBC News on Wednesday in a wide-ranging interview in his Capitol Hill office."

"The diminished standing has made McConnell — and by extension his allies, like the deep-pocketed Senate Leadership Fund super PAC — 'less inclined to accept cards that may be dealt to us,' he said," according to the report. "'We can do a better job with less potential interference,' he said. 'The former president may have other things to do.'"

"McConnell also blamed Trump for tarnishing the party’s image among crucial independent and swing voters, who rejected GOP Senate contenders in the states that decided the majority. He said that the party underperformed in 'every state' — including the red state of Ohio, which Republicans narrowly won — and that its performance was 'fatal' in Arizona, New Hampshire and Georgia," said the report. "'We lost support that we needed among independents and moderate Republicans, primarily related to the view they had of us as a party — largely made by the former president — that we were sort of nasty and tended toward chaos,' McConnell said. 'And oddly enough, even though that subset of voters did not approve of President Biden, they didn’t have enough confidence in us in several instances to give us the majority we needed.'"

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This comes after McConnell, who previously said he would back Trump if he is the party nominee in 2024, has begun to avoid answering that question, following Trump's Mar-a-Lago dinner meeting with neo-Nazi activist Nick Fuentes.

"McConnell's sharp criticism raises the tension between the two GOP leaders ahead of a potentially chaotic two years for the party, which faces deep divisions over governing and political strategy as it prepares to claim control of the House and looks ahead to 2024," said the report. "A spokesman for Trump didn't respond to a request for comment."