It likely will not surprise many that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell spent a sizable cut of his $180 million war chest to boost establishment Republicans who were running against America First candidates in the Republican primary elections.
Florida Republican Congressman Anthony Sabatini covered numerous anti-MAGA expenditures by the minority leader in a piece he drafted for Chronicles Magazine:
McConnell’s political machine committed about $9 million to help Sen. Lisa Murkowski defeat Kelly Tshibaka in Alaska’s Republican primary, and millions more for Katie Britt against Mo Brooks in Alabama. McConnell also held back on spending money in key races, haphazardly withdrawing $5 million in New Hampshire to undermine Don Bolduc in his race against Sen. Maggie Hassan. In Arizona, he failed to support Blake Masters at a critical time against Sen. Mark Kelly.
As was previously reported, McConnell infamously canceled nearly $10 million of ad buys supporting Arizona’s Republican candidate, Blake Masters.
Past media appearances have indicated that Sabitini has not been a fan of McConnell for quite some time now. The Florida congressman suggested McConnell is more aligned with leftism than conservatism in an interview with SHOWTIME posted in 2021.
“[McConnell] is basically a liberal at this point, he is almost a Democrat,” Sabitini said of the house minority leader.
"McConnell is basically a liberal at this point, he is almost a Democrat." Athony Sabatini
I would like to say the people of his district deserve better, but I've been there so…https://t.co/ETMJ1MLxJz— Julia (@Julia_In_FL) October 19, 2021
Sabitini lambasted McCarthy as well, writing, “McCarthy’s behavior is even worse than McConnell’s in light of the extremely underwhelming House election results.” He pointed out that the widely expected so-called “red wave” led to only a very slight Republican majority.
The Washington Post reported that McCarthy’s political machine spent millions against GOP candidates who identify with the America First movement.
The Florida congressman listed several examples:
Here are just a few examples: $1.7 million against Freedom Caucus member Madison Cawthorn in NC-11; $2 million in WA-3 against Joe Kent, and $2 million to prop up Kent’s primary opponent; $1.5 million spent against Carl Paladino in NY-23; $1 million against Christian Collins in TX-8; at least $1 million against Karoline Leavitt in NH-1; various amounts against J. R. Majewski in OH-9 and David Giglio in CA-13; and finally, $1.5 million against me in FL-7, a safe Republican seat, where McCarthy surrogates ran false and negative ads through “American Liberty Action PAC,” one of the four McCarthy attack PACs controlled by his surrogates. The list goes on.
Sabitini went on to argue that McCarthy and McConnell alike care “more about being surrounded by Republican colleagues aligned with the establishment than winning elections for Republicans.” He additionally alleged that McCarthy’s actions indicate he would gladly let Republicans lose rather than “reflect the popular will by letting in new-right Republicans who think differently than he does about immigration, trade, war, and the managerial state.”
