With the disappointing results from the predicted “red wave” this midterm cycle, Republicans have been quick to point fingers at former President Donald Trump for the particularly poor performance of Republicans in the Senate races.
Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, however, has specifically named Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell as the reason for Republican failure to win the upper chamber.
According to The Daily Caller, Cruz unapologetically stated on Monday’s episode of his podcast “Verdict with Ted Cruz” that McConnell’s “indefensible” abandonment of Arizona Senate candidate Blake Masters is what kept Republicans from recapturing the Senate.
Cruz co-host Ben Ferguson started the conversation by telling Cruz that Americans “want to know who is to blame” for the GOP failure to win the Senate.
“What happened? How did this happen? And who is to blame for it?” Ferguson asked.
Cruz’s response didn’t mince words.
“Well, Ben, let me start out by saying I’m so p*ssed off I cannot even see straight,” he said.
Cruz said the party had missed a “generational opportunity” to take both the House and Senate and maintain a significant majority in both houses of Congress.
“We had an extraordinary opportunity. We had a generational opportunity,” he said.
“This should have been a fundamental landslide election. We should have won the House and the Senate. We should have a 30, 40, 50 vote majority in the House. We should have 53, 54, 55 Republicans in the Senate.”
One key race for Republicans was in Arizona, where incumbent Democrat Mark Kelly beat Republican challenger Blake Masters.
According to a Nov. 8 Fox News report, a McConnell-aligned political action committee, the Senate Leadership Fund, withdrew at least $8 million in campaign spending designated for the Arizona Senate race after Trump-affiliated Masters won the GOP primary.
On the podcast, Ferguson asked Cruz, according to The Daily Caller, “Explain to me, Senator, why in a race where the polling showed that we had a legitimate chance of winning there. Why did he pull out that money from Masters who desperately needed it?”
“Because Masters said he would vote against Mitch McConnell, and so Mitch would rather be leader than have a Republican majority,” Cruz said, according to The Daily Caller. “If there’s a Republican who can win, who’s not gonna support Mitch, the truth of the matter is, he’d rather the Democrat win. So he pulled all the money out of Arizona.”
Cruz is not the only Republican figure disgusted with McConnell.
As the liberal website Mediaite reported in September, Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene used an interview with the Right Side Broadcasting Network to call McConnell a RINO (Republican In Name Only).
She said McConnell had the PAC funding for Masters pulled because a win for Masters would be akin to “…cutting the head off the snake and defeating Mitch McConnell – the RINO that has controlled the Senate for years now.”
Marge says Mitch is a snake: “McConnell is pulling his support and pulling money from backing Blake Masters for Senate.” If AZ elects Masters “they are going to be cutting the head off the snake and defeating Mitch McConnell.” pic.twitter.com/lm3blEiwN5
— Ron Filipkowski ?? (@RonFilipkowski) September 21, 2022
This kind of behavior is not surprising from the minority leader when he feels threatened by someone on his side of the aisle.
McConnell gained infamy with his public betrayal of Donald Trump on the Senate floor in December 2020 when he conceded the election to now-President Joe Biden and now-Vice President Harris while the results of the 2020 election were still being hotly contested.
According to the New York Post, McConnell announced in that speech, “The Electoral College has spoken. So, today I want to congratulate President-elect Joe Biden…I also want to congratulate the Vice President-elect, our colleague from California, Senator Harris. Beyond our differences, all Americans can take pride that our nation has a female vice president-elect for the very first time.”
In the same article, Biden was quoted as saying he’d spoken to McConnell.
“I called to thank him for the congratulations, told him although we disagree on a lot of things, there’s things we can work together on,” Biden said, according to the Post.
McConnel embodies the phrase “it is better to rule in hell than to serve in heaven” as he continually sabotages Republican chances to gain ground if it threatens his position of prestige and power.
Cruz went on in his podcast episode to state that McConnell’s actions will have serious consequences for the country moving forward.
“The country is screwed for the next four years because of this,” he said. “We’re gonna see horrible left-wing judges confirmed for the next two years, because of this.
“We’re gonna see judges taking away our free speech rights, our religious liberty rights, our Second Amendment rights. It is an enormous missed opportunity. And I gotta say, it is hard to describe my feelings as anything other than rage right now.”
It may be wise to put McConnell and other aged RINOs on a political ice float and usher in new, truly conservative leadership should the Republican Party have ambitions to win another election in this country.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
