McConnell may intervene in GOP primaries — and it could anger Trump supporters: report

In the wake of Donald Trump's presidency, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) faces a future of challenges from the Trumpist wing of the Republican Party. According to the Wall Street Journal, McConnell's strategy for this inevitability will be to get involved in primary in an effort to regain control of the chamber in 2022.

Speaking to the Wall Street Journal, McConnell said that the key to GOP chances of retaking the Senate is "getting candidates who can actually win in November," adding that it "may or may not involve trying to affect the outcome of the primaries."

"The carefully chosen phrasing reflects Mr. McConnell's difficult balancing act as a de facto party leader after the party's one-time standard-bearer, former President Trump, lost the White House in November elections, and roiled the political world with unfounded assertions that the election was stolen," writes the Wall Street Journal's Siobhan Hughes. "Extreme elements of Mr. Trump's supporters stormed the Capitol building on Jan. 6, leading to an impeachment trial of the former president."

It will be a difficult balancing act.

"To regain power, Mr. McConnell must tap the considerable energy the Trump movement brings to the party while weeding out any extreme candidates that he worries would have little chance of winning a general election, despite support from Mr. Trump," the newspaper explained. "Some Republicans who are squarely in the Trump wing of the party might easily win even a general election in deeply conservative areas. But such candidates risk complicating the party's efforts elsewhere in more moderate areas of the country. If Mr. McConnell moves too aggressively against a pro-Trump candidate he deems too close to the fringes of the party, he could invite a backlash from the base."

Read the full article over at the Wall Street Journal.