Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said in a new interview that the Republican Party will continue to back Georgia Senate candidate Herschel Walker despite credible allegations that the self-described pro-life politician convinced a woman to abort the child they conceived together.
“I think we’re going to stick with Walker and all the effort we put in through SLF [Senate Leadership Fund], we’re going take it all the way to the end,” McConnell told CNN in a lengthy interview published Tuesday.
McConnell endorsed Walker in the GOP primary for Georgia Senate, and the candidate has been financially supported by the SLF, a Republican PAC tied to the minority leader.
“I think they’re going to hang in there and scrap to the finish,” McConnell said of the Walker campaign.
The Kentucky senator added that he thinks the election will hinge on incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock’s (D) alignment with President Biden, who has dealt with low approval ratings during his presidency.
McConnell avoided questions about his relationship with former President Trump, another GOP giant who endorsed Walker, declining to share whether he wants the Republican Party to look more like Trump or Rep. Liz Cheney (Wyo.), who has been outspoken in her opposition to the former president.
“I don’t have a litmus test,” McConnell said in response to the dichotomy.
“I’m for people that get the Republican nomination, and for winning, because if we win we get to decide what the agenda is, and they don’t,” he said.
Trump recently hurled racist insults at McConnell’s wife, Elaine Chao, who served as the billionaire politician’s secretary of Transportation, and said that the Senate majority leader has a “DEATH WISH” due to his votes in the chamber.
“The only time I’ve responded to the President, I think, since he left office is when he gave me my favorite nickname – Old Crow – which I considered a compliment and after all, it was Henry Clay’s favorite bourbon,” responded McConnell to the remarks.