Rick Scott Swipes At Mcconnell And Treasonous Criticism Of Gop Candidates

Republican Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, the Senate GOP campaign chairman, is hitting back at intra-party criticism of Republican Senate candidates, many of whom are running at the polls. And he is reviving an ongoing rivalry with his caucus leader: Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who criticized the “quality of candidates” in the GOP. “Senator McConnell and I clearly have a strategic disagreement here,” Scott said in an interview with Politico. “We have great candidates.” Scott also wrote an op-ed in the Washington Examiner on Thursday in which he criticized the party’s most controversial candidates — including Herschel Walker in Georgia, Blake Masters in Arizona, JD Vance in Ohio and Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania — as a conflict between the “chattering class” in Washington and the party’s core voters. “Many of the very people responsible for losing the last Senate cycle are now trying to prevent us from winning the majority this time by talking about our Republican nominees,” he wrote. “It’s a stunning act of cowardice and, ultimately, it’s a betrayal of the conservative cause.” “Giving anonymous quotes to help the Washington Post or the New York Times write stories trashing Republicans is the same as working with the Democratic National Committee,” he also wrote. “If you want to trash talk our candidates to help the Democrats, get off.” But while there have been myriad stories for which Republicans have provided anonymous quotes, Republican leaders have also tried to manage public expectations as well. “There’s probably a greater chance of overturning the House than the Senate,” McConnell said at a luncheon in Kentucky last month. “Senate races are just different. It’s statewide, the quality of the candidates has a lot to do with the outcome.” These words were interpreted as an implicit jab at some of the party’s candidates, who each had their own problems. In Arizona, Masters has struggled to win over the state’s increasingly purple electorate and recently began scrubbing hard-right political positions from his website. In Ohio, Vance came under fire for appearing to advocate that couples in “violent” marriages not be separated. Walker struggled in Georgia as he gave convoluted answers to questions from the media, and Oz tried to convince Pennsylvania voters of his authenticity, including his ties to the state where he is running. On Wednesday, election forecaster Crystal Ball changed its ratings for Senate races in Arizona and Pennsylvania to “lean Democratic,” citing “weaknesses in both states’ Republican candidates and what appears to be a not-so-bleak environment for the Democrats”. The other subplot at play is Scott’s ongoing rivalry with McConnell. Earlier this year, Scott released his own GOP agenda that would have included a tax hike on more than half of Americans, leading to a public departure from McConnell in March. — CSPAN (@cspan) March 1, 2022

title: “Rick Scott Swipes At Mcconnell And Treasonous Criticism Of Gop Candidates Klmat” ShowToc: true date: “2022-11-09” author: “Jane Adams”

Republican Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, the Senate GOP campaign chairman, is hitting back at intra-party criticism of Republican Senate candidates, many of whom are running at the polls. And he is reviving an ongoing rivalry with his caucus leader: Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who criticized the “quality of candidates” in the GOP. “Senator McConnell and I clearly have a strategic disagreement here,” Scott said in an interview with Politico. “We have great candidates.” Scott also wrote an op-ed in the Washington Examiner on Thursday in which he criticized the party’s most controversial candidates — including Herschel Walker in Georgia, Blake Masters in Arizona, JD Vance in Ohio and Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania — as a conflict between the “chattering class” in Washington and the party’s core voters. “Many of the very people responsible for losing the last Senate cycle are now trying to prevent us from winning the majority this time by talking about our Republican nominees,” he wrote. “It’s a stunning act of cowardice and, ultimately, it’s a betrayal of the conservative cause.” “Giving anonymous quotes to help the Washington Post or the New York Times write stories trashing Republicans is the same as working with the Democratic National Committee,” he also wrote. “If you want to trash talk our candidates to help the Democrats, get off.” But while there have been myriad stories for which Republicans have provided anonymous quotes, Republican leaders have also tried to manage public expectations as well. “There’s probably a greater chance of overturning the House than the Senate,” McConnell said at a luncheon in Kentucky last month. “Senate races are just different. It’s statewide, the quality of the candidates has a lot to do with the outcome.” These words were interpreted as an implicit jab at some of the party’s candidates, who each had their own problems. In Arizona, Masters has struggled to win over the state’s increasingly purple electorate and recently began scrubbing hard-right political positions from his website. In Ohio, Vance came under fire for appearing to advocate that couples in “violent” marriages not be separated. Walker struggled in Georgia as he gave convoluted answers to questions from the media, and Oz tried to convince Pennsylvania voters of his authenticity, including his ties to the state where he is running. On Wednesday, election forecaster Crystal Ball changed its ratings for Senate races in Arizona and Pennsylvania to “lean Democratic,” citing “weaknesses in both states’ Republican candidates and what appears to be a not-so-bleak environment for the Democrats”. The other subplot at play is Scott’s ongoing rivalry with McConnell. Earlier this year, Scott released his own GOP agenda that would have included a tax hike on more than half of Americans, leading to a public departure from McConnell in March. — CSPAN (@cspan) March 1, 2022