McConnell Campaign Trolls Blankenship With ‘Narcos’ Cocaine Meme

“Cocaine Mitch” beat Don Blankenship, West Virginia’s controversial Republican Senate primary candidate, at his own game on Tuesday evening.

After Blankenship lost the GOP primary Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY) campaign tweeted out a picture of McConnell photoshopped onto a Netflix advertisement for “Narcos,” a show about cocaine drug lord Pablo Escobar. The meme features McConnell’s face superimposed over Escobar’s body, surrounded by white power that’s meant to depict cocaine.

“Thanks for playing, Don,” the meme said, referencing Blankenship, who has attacked McConnell repeatedly in recent weeks, most notably giving him the moniker “cocaine Mitch.”

Thanks for playing, @DonBlankenship. #WVSen pic.twitter.com/TV1ETgQdmu

— Team Mitch (@Team_Mitch) May 9, 2018

that's cocaine this is a photo of mitch mcconnell smiling in a shower of cocaine pic.twitter.com/473YmKySR3

— philosopher ? king (@christapeterso) May 9, 2018

After his third place finish in the West Virginia Republican Senate primary on Tuesday evening, Blankenship mused whether he’d gone too far in some of his attacks against McConnell, who poured an aggressive amount of cash into the primary race to keep Blankenship from winning. McConnell has been vocal about his opposition to the controversial candidate, who served a one-year sentence in prison for his role in failing to prevent a mine accident that killed 29 workers.

Blankenship responded to McConnell’s opposition with a series of odd and racially charged insults, like calling McConnell’s father-in-law a “China person.” In a campaign ad released last week, Blankenship gave McConnell his “cocaine Mitch” nickname and vowed to “ditch Mitch” if he were elected to the Senate. The drug dig was in reference to a 2014 report in The Nation about drugs that were discovered on a shipping vessel owned by the family of Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, McConnell’s wife.