Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) suggested that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) may not have intended to say he would “crush” tea party candidates challenging incumbent Republicans.

Paul, in an interview on Glenn Beck’s radio show posted on Tuesday, said that “in the middle of the campaign things are said that may not be intended.”

His comments came in response to McConnell, who in a New York Times interview over the weekend, predicted he and his incumbent allies “are going to crush them everywhere.”

“I don’t think they are going to have a single nominee anywhere in the country,” McConnell added in the interview.

There’s reason for McConnell to be optimistic. The tea party candidate challenging him is increasingly looking like a long shot as are many of the other high profile tea party challengers throughout the country.

Here’s Paul’s full comment: