Mitch McConnell: Steve Bannon 'not a factor' and 'has no impact'
BY ALEXANDER BOLTON - 12/21/17 09:41 AM EST
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) says Steve Bannon and his allies are “not a factor in my life” and have “no impact” on Republicans’ ability to run the Senate or keep their majority in 2018.
McConnell doesn’t like to mention the former White House chief strategist by name and when asked about his political nemesis at a “News Shapers” event Thursday sponsored by Axios, insisted, “I don’t have any observations on him at all.” But when pressed, McConnell, only referring to Bannon as “that element,” said he’s “not a factor in my life,” and “has no impact on our ability to function in the Senate nor will it have any impact on the campaign.”
Bannon, who has returned to Breitbart News, has called on McConnell to resign as Senate majority leader and last month predicted that he doesn’t expect the Kentucky Republicans to be in the GOP leadership a year from now.
McConnell told Axios’s Mike Allen on Thursday that the feeling is mutual and blamed Bannon for Republicans losing the Alabama special election earlier this month, which shrinks their Senate majority to 51 seats next year.
“The people you’re talking about, that element, just managed to blow a Senate race in the reddest state in America, that is not a formula for victory,” he said.
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http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/365964-mitch-mcconnell-steve-bannon-not-a-factor-and-has-no-impact
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