Politico reported this about an hour ago:
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell made clear on Tuesday that Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp’s pick for a Senate seat will have the full backing of the Republican establishment, sending a clear message that anyone who challenges Kelly Loeffler will face the full weight of the GOP machine.
Further…
McConnell said Loeffler would be treated as an incumbent and would enjoy full backing from the National Republican Senatorial Committee and sitting senators.
We all know Trump wants Kemp to pick Doug Collins; I even had a diary up the other day about how FLORIDA Congressidiot Matt Gaetz threatened Kemp with a primary if Kemp “substitut[ed] his judgment for the President’s.”
In that diary, I wrote that
Now, the difference between Collins and Loeffler in terms of how they’ll vote probably could be measured in microns. But aside from the ludicrous spectacle of a Florida rep making threats against the governor of another state, there is the interesting point that a republican governor of a state that may be in play in 2020 is willing to defy Trump’s vehemently expressed demands.
Now it seems the Senate majority leader, Moscow Mitch himself, is challenging Trump over an issue that Trump has demanded, pouted, pounded the floor over, threatened, bullied, and expressed an interest in.
This goes to a point I’ve been making all along: McConnell will back Trump only so long as he doesn’t think Trump is a threat to his re-election or his Senate majority. Clearly, McConnell has calculated that Loeffler has a better chance of winning in the 2020 special election than Collins.
I’m not holding my breath, but I do have to wonder if this isn’t some sort of subtle signal from McConnell to Trump (or more likely to his caucus, since Trump wouldn’t know subtle if it smacked him in the face) that they should maybe start thinking about calling Pence the president.