Ex-coal CEO Don Blankenship is warning that his long-running feud with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) isn’t over.
Blankenship — who failed to win the party’s Senate nomination in West Virginia — released an ad over the weekend that includes a warning to McConnell that “it’s not over.”
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“As for Mitch’s thanking Don Blankenship for playing in what Mitch considers his Senate sandbox, Don has not quit playing in it yet,” the narrator says in the minute-long ad, which includes an edited photo of McConnell playing in a sandbox in front of the Capitol.
The ad comes after Blankenship came in a distant third in last week’s Senate GOP primary. Greg Thomas, Blankenship’s campaign manager, warned that Blankenship will work to “make sure” Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, who won the party’s nomination, loses the race in November.
Thomas didn’t specify how Blankenship, who has deep pockets, would get involved, saying “all options” — including directly attacking Morrisey or backing another candidate — were on the table.
Blankenship has had a months-long simmering feud with McConnell, whom he blames for the backlash to his candidacy from President Trump and establishment Republicans.
He nicknamed McConnell “Cocaine Mitch” during the West Virginia primary fight, pointing to the father of McConnell’s wife, Treasury Secretary Elaine Chao, who owns an international shipping company. The left-leaning Nation magazine reported in 2014 that drugs were once found on one of the shipping vessels.
“That’s not funny to families that have lost loved ones to cocaine overdose deaths. It’s only funny to those that make money by shipping and selling cocaine. So, Mitch is laughing but we aren’t,” the narrator in Blankenship’s ad says.
McConnell trolled Blankenship after he lost the primary last week. The Senate GOP leader’s team released an edited photo of the Senate leader surrounded by a white powder and the tagline: “Thanks for playing, Don,” in a reference to the Netflix show “Narcos.”
McConnell separately confirmed to Fox News radio that he had answered his phone a few times as “Cocaine Mitch.”