If there was ever a way to make Mitch McConnell sound like an edgy rebel who lives on the wild side, Don Blankenship apparently found it.

The West Virginia Senate candidate released an attack ad on Monday where he referred to the Senate Majority Leader as “Cocaine Mitch.” The ad included precisely zero context for the nickname, and it came out as Blankenship made various personal attacks against McConnell ahead of the upcoming Republican primary.

“One of my goals as U.S. senator will be to ditch Cocaine Mitch,” Blankenship said. “When you voting for me, you’re voting for the sake of the kids.”

After a period of confusion about the ad, his campaign released a statement explaining themselves.

INBOX: Don Blankenship Releases "Cocaine Mitch" Ad Explanation pic.twitter.com/LwmfaAYo51 — Ben Jacobs (@Bencjacobs) May 1, 2018

The statement confirms the speculation that “Cocaine Mitch” was a throwback to old reports saying that drugs were once discovered on a shipping vessel owned by the family of McConnell’s wife, Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao. Politico noted their reporters interviewed Blankenship in recent days, and he brought up McConnell’s connections to China several times while suggesting there was cause for concern since Chao is “from China.”

As it were, “Cocaine Mitch” has been trending on Twitter for a while, mostly because political observers are just bemused by the idea of McConnell being addicted to blow:

While I cannot profess to be an expert on Mitch McConnell or cocaine… I would certainly not characterize him as a live wire, a party animal or ANY other obvious characteristic tied to the drug. Is there an after dark “Mystery Mitch” we don’t know about? https://t.co/WnbDOjC8eX — Stephanie Ruhle (@SRuhle) April 30, 2018

“Cocaine Mitch” is my sixth favorite Velvet Underground song. https://t.co/QSRaN1tEbQ — John Moe (@johnmoe) May 1, 2018

Cocaine Mitch is quite the nickname. https://t.co/yb9qb1fAkk — deray (@deray) May 1, 2018

when you've got Cocaine Mitch right where you want him pic.twitter.com/qwombSYI8K — Simon Maloy (@SimonMaloy) May 1, 2018

Watch above, via Facebook.

[Image via screengrab]

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