McConnell goes right after Trump while taking victory lap on his 'candidate quality' prediction

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) on Tuesday took a direct shot at former President Donald Trump while taking a Pyrrhic victory lap on his prediction that poor candidate quality would make it challenging for his party to win back the Senate.

While addressing reporters, McConnell refreshed their memories about the statement he made about GOP Senate candidate quality this past summer.

"Some of you may recall I never said there was a 'red wave,'" he said. "I said there were a bunch of close races, and looking at each race separately, I wasn't making that up. We had a bunch of close races. We ended up having a candidate quality time, anybody remember who mentioned that back in August? Look at Arizona, look at New Hampshire, and a challenging situation in Georgia."

The candidates in the states that McConnell referred to -- Blake Masters, Don Bolduc, and Herschel Walker, respectively -- were all endorsed by former President Donald Trump because they peddled his false claims about the 2020 presidential election being "stolen" by President Joe Biden.

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All of them were also defeated by their incumbent Democratic opponents.

McConnell made sure not to leave the former president out of his criticism, as he said Trump's intervention in multiple races was a deciding factor.

"Our ability to control the primary outcome was quite limited in 2022 because of the support of the former president that proved to be very decisive in these primaries," McConnell said. "So my view was, do the best you can with the cards you're dealt."

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