“I may or may not be calling the shots next year,” Mitch McConnell says. | Getty McConnell: I may not be majority leader next year

Mitch McConnell may not be leading the Senate majority next Congress, the Kentucky Republican acknowledged Thursday, hinting of the down-ballot effect Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump could have on Senate races.

“I may or may not be calling the shots next year,” McConnell told a civic group in Louisville, according to The Associated Press.


McConnell, in an apparent overture to donors, called Republicans’ chances to retain the Senate “very dicey” but dismissed the Trump effect, insisting that Republicans would be “on defense,” regardless of who was atop the ticket.

He also highlighted the 24 GOP seats on the ballot this year, noting that Democrats have just 10. Democrats would need to gain five seats to retake the majority — or gain four and retain the White House as the vice president can cast a tie-breaking vote in the upper chamber.

It’s “stating the obvious” that Trump and Clinton aren’t “widely appealing to the American people,” McConnell said, but the choice between Trump and Clinton “is easy for me.”

The Senate leader added that he hopes Trump “settles down and follows the script” but maintained that when Trump “says something I have to speak up on, I will.”

“But that doesn't mean I don't support him,” he continued, warning that if Republicans lose the Senate, their ability “to impact judicial appointments will be considerably diminished.”