Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-Ky.) Senate campaign team trolled West Virginia GOP candidate Don Blankenship over his loss in Tuesday night’s primary race, sharing an image containing an apparent reference to the Netflix series “Narcos.”
Blankenship had railed against McConnell during his campaign, labeling the Senate leader “Cocaine Mitch.”
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“Thanks for playing, @DonBlankenship,” Team Mitch tweeted Tuesday evening shortly after news of Blankenship’s concession.
The image shows McConnell’s face seemingly edited on the body of a character from one of the “Narcos” advertisements. In the image, McConnell is surrounded by a cloud of what appears to be cocaine.
Representatives for the Netflix show responded on the show’s official Twitter account, retweeting the Senate leader and commenting: “Low blow, Mitch.”
Blankenship, a former coal CEO, was imprisoned for his role in a mine disaster that claimed the lives of 29 miners in 2010. Blankenship was convicted of willfully conspiring to violate mine safety standards.
His campaign released a statement last week explaining their decision to attack McConnell using the drug reference, as well as remarks targeting McConnell’s wife.
“His father-in-law who founded and owns a large Chinese shipping company has given Mitch and his wife millions of dollars over the years,” the press release reads. “The company was implicated recently in smuggling cocaine from Colombia to Europe, hidden aboard a company ship carrying foreign coal was $7 million dollars of cocaine and that is why we’ve deemed him ‘Cocaine Mitch.’ “
McConnell called the ads “ridiculous” and urged voters to support Blankeship’s opponents, a sentiment shared by many in Washington including the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr.
“I hate to lose. So I’m gonna go out on a limb here and ask the people of West Virginia to make a wise decision and reject Blankenship!” Trump Jr. tweeted. “No more fumbles like Alabama. We need to win in November.”