Mitch McConnell 'not confident' GOP can retake Senate in 2024: report

United States Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) conceded in an exclusive interview with CNN's Manu Raju on Monday that Republicans could squander their opportunity to retake control of the Senate in 2024 if they fail to select candidates who can win general elections.

"McConnell made clear he knows full well that things can quickly go south. So he's been working behind the scenes for months to find his preferred candidates in key races – including during his recent recovery from a concussion and a broken rib – in an attempt to prevent a repeat of 2022: When a highly favorable GOP landscape turned into a Republican collapse at the polls and a 51-49 Senate Democratic majority," Raju explained.

“No, no – I'm not" confident in the GOP's chances, McConnell revealed to Raju. "I just spent 10 minutes explaining to you how we could screw this up, and we're working very hard to not let that happen. Let's put it that way."

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McConnell also said that while the Republican Party lacks "an ideological litmus test, they simply "want to win in November.”

McConnell added that “we'll be involved in any primary where that seems to be necessary to get a high-quality candidate, and we'll be involved in every general election where we have a legitimate shot of winning – regardless of the philosophy of the nominee."

Officeseekers that have the endorsement of former President Donald Trump pose a particular challenge, as the party learned in the 2022 midterms, Raju noted.

But McConnell's primary concern is that "we do have the possibility of screwing this up and that gets back to candidate recruitment. I think that we lost Georgia, Arizona, and New Hampshire because we didn't have competitive candidates (last cycle). And Steve Daines and I are in exactly the same place – that starts with candidate quality."