GOP senators push back against Bannon's effort to dislodge incumbents [View all]

[DonViejo]

By SEUNG MIN KIM 09/11/2017 07:55 PM EDT

Senate Republicans are firing a warning shot at Steve Bannon, the former White House chief strategist who is plotting a conservative uprising against the party’s incumbents in next year’s critical midterm elections.

Concerned about retaining their fragile majority, GOP senators said in interviews Monday that Bannon’s nascent effort would further damage the prospects of keeping control of the Senate. Republicans are already in the middle of a cycle in which some senators have been trying to fend off primary challengers, even before Bannon’s meddling.

“I wish he’d focus on Democrats. Circular firing squads don’t work very well,” Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, the majority whip and two-time chairman of the party’s Senate campaign arm, said in an interview Monday. “I think it certainly doesn’t make it any easier [in keeping the majority] and it just seems so counterproductive.”

When asked whether Bannon’s push would make it more difficult for Republicans to keep their majority in the Senate, South Dakota Sen. John Thune responded: “It does.”

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http://www.politico.com/story/2017/09/11/bannon-senate-republicans-primaries-242573