Washington (CNN) Several Republican candidates endorsed by Steve Bannon began distancing themselves from the former White House chief strategist Wednesday after President Donald Trump said Bannon had "lost his mind."

Two Bannon-backed Senate hopefuls downplayed the importance of his support and underscored their commitment to Trump's agenda.

In Arizona, a spokesman for Kelli Ward -- the conservative that hard-liner Bannon backed even as leading GOP strategists and Trump himself attempted to recruit someone else into the race to replace retiring Sen. Jeff Flake -- cast Bannon's endorsement as unimportant.

"Steve Bannon is only one of many high-profile endorsements Dr. Ward has received. Her focus remains on winning this race, which she is in a great position to do, and then helping President Trump advance an America First agenda," Ward press secretary Zachery Henry said.

Trump hammered Bannon in a remarkable four-paragraph statement after adapted excerpts of a forthcoming book in which Bannon described a Trump Tower meeting between Trump's son and a group of Russians as "treasonous" and "unpatriotic" were released. The Wall Street Journal later reported that in another section of the book, Bannon is quoted describing Ivanka Trump as "dumb as a brick."

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