Collins: Bannon’s rhetoric about McConnell ‘not helpful’

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) said Sunday that former White House chief strategist Stephen Bannon’s rhetoric about Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is “not helpful.”

“This is not helpful or appropriate at all. Obviously Mr. Bannon has the right to support whomever he wants to support,” Collins told ABC’s “This Week.”

{mosads}“But I think his rhetoric is exactly what the American people are tired of. They don’t want this hyperpartisanship. They want us to work together and they want us to get things done.” 

Bannon has vowed to challenge the Republican establishment in the 2018 midterms and put up primary challengers against GOP senators.

Collins slammed Bannon’s “over the top rhetoric” about McConnell as “not helpful.”

“Mitch McConnell is the Senate Majority Leader. The president needs him. I’m glad that they’re working together on tax reform and a lot of other issues,” she said.