Good Monday evening. This is Daniel Allott with The Hill's Top Opinions.
After decades of always making the shrewd move, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell failed when faced with the most important political decision of his career, writes Republican campaign consultant KEITH NAUGHTON.
McConnell could have rallied enough of his fellow Republican senators to convict Donald Trump in his second impeachment trial if he had made the effort.
But he didn't, and Naughton believes it was "just about the biggest political miscalculation of the last century."
McConnell probably assumed Trump "would fade away after the events of Jan. 6." And now "Trump [is] alive to cause more election mischief."
That includes "sneaking through all of his hand-picked 2022 Senate candidates, with McConnell either meekly submitting to Trump's endorsements or sitting out races."
And many of these Trump candidates are at risk of losing, polling well below their Republican ticket-mates in several key states.
Republicans should be well on their way to a strong Senate majority. But instead, "the awful performance of the Trump-picked candidates is putting that result in doubt."
"By shrinking away from getting his final revenge on Trump and leaving him politically alive, McConnell cost himself the majority for this Senate term and possibly the next," writes Naughton.
"Even worse, he allows a severely damaged Trump the opportunity to hand the Democrats another four years in the White House."
Read Naughton's op-ed here.
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