Mitch McConnell’s conservative challenger has a new web video that says Mitch McConnell wants to punch conservatives in the nose.
The video, released by Kentucky Senate GOP candidate Matt Bevin, spoofs a McConnell campaign ad with faux captions about what the Republican Senate minority leader is purportedly thinking.
“I will punch those conservatives in the nose,” reads one caption of a shot of McConnell at his desk. “Yeah…I will totally punch them,” reads another. “I’m Mitch McConnell…I can do what I want,” reads a third. “I punch conservatives,” reads a fourth.
It’s a reference to a report in the conservative Breitbart.com which said, based on anonymous sources, that McConnell told donors the tea party movement is a “bunch of bullies” who he wants to “punch … in the nose.” There is dispute about what he said, though. The Washington Examiner reported that it listened to full audio of the call and that McConnell’s “bullies” remark was specifically directed at the Senate Conservatives Fund, an outside tea party group, but not the movement broadly.
The captions in Bevin’s video continue along those lines, alluding to the GOP leader’s ostensible betrayals and making thinly veiled references to McConnell’s vow to “crush” the tea party challengers who want to unseat incumbent Republican senators.
Bevin is trailing McConnell by 38 percentage points in the contest, according to a poll conducted by Public Opinion Strategies for a pro-McConnell group this week. The GOP primary is on May 20.
Watch the video, uploaded to the Bevin campaign’s YouTube account.
This article has been updated.
