Story highlights The Republicans are defending more seats than the Dems

He raised the possibility that he might not be Senate Majority leader next year

(CNN) Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell is bluntly warning that his party's chances of hanging onto its majority in the Senate this fall are "very dicey."

Speaking at a local Chamber of Commerce event in Middletown, Kentucky on Thursday, McConnell, in video posted by a local news outlet CN/2, didn't specifically link the party's diminishing standing to GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump's slide in both national polls and those in key battleground states.

But the GOP leader said the challenging landscape for Republicans in 2016 was because they are defending more seats than the Democrats.

"It's very dicey," McConnell said. "We have, we -- meaning Senate Republicans -- have 24 members up. Our Democratic friends only have 10. So as you can see we were going to be on defense anyway, no matter what was going on at the presidential level."

He added, "I may or may not be calling the shots next year. If I'm not, it'll be a guy called Chuck Schumer from New York (as Senate majority leader) who has a very different mindset from myself, and our ability to impact judicial appointments will be considerably diminished if those guys are in the majority as opposed to us."

Read More