Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader, took a shot at President Trump’s former chief strategist, Stephen K. Bannon, saying Mr. Bannon had cost Republicans a Senate seat in Alabama.
Senator Mitch McConnell took a sarcastic shot on Friday at Stephen K. Bannon, telling reporters at an end-of-the-year news conference that Mr. Bannon’s “political genius” had cost the party a Senate seat in Alabama.
As he looked to the new year, on the heels of this week’s passage of a landmark tax overhaul that Mr. Trump signed into law on Friday, Mr. McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the majority leader, used most of the news conference to revisit what he called the “extraordinary” accomplishments of this year, and to sketch the broad outlines of his legislative agenda for early 2018.
He said he hoped that Democrats and Republicans would unite around an immigration bill that would protect young undocumented immigrants from deportation.
But Mr. McConnell also turned to politics. He will have to contend next year with midterm elections — and that means contending with Mr. Bannon, President Trump’s former chief strategist and a fiery populist who is working to elect Republicans in the mold of Mr. Trump by waging primary election challenges against some incumbent Republican senators or candidates backed by Mr. McConnell.
Complicating their charged relationship is the question of whose side Mr. Trump will take. Mr. McConnell expressed confidence that the president would back the candidates he picks, saying, “I believe the White House will be in the same place I am.”
In Arizona, for instance, Mr. Bannon is behind the candidacy of Kelli Ward, a doctor who lost a hard-fought primary race last year to Senator John McCain. Mr. McConnell said Friday that he backs Representative Martha McSally, though she has not yet formally announced her candidacy for the seat being vacated by Senator Jeff Flake.
And in Nevada, Mr. McConnell is supporting the incumbent Republican, Senator Dean Heller, while Mr. Bannon is behind Danny Tarkanian, a businessman and serial candidate for public office. Analysts say Democrats have a shot of winning in both Arizona and Nevada. If they do, Republicans would lose their majority.
“Those two races are on a knife’s edge, and the wrong nominee takes you out of the game,” said Scott Jennings, a Republican strategist who is close to Mr. McConnell.
In Alabama, Mr. McConnell had backed Senator Luther Strange, the Republican incumbent who filled the seat after its previous occupant, Jeff Sessions, became attorney general. Mr. Bannon supported Roy S. Moore, the controversial former judge who ultimately won the Republican primary — and was later accused of making inappropriate sexual advances toward teenagers.
Mr. Moore lost this month to Doug Jones, a Democrat. For Mr. McConnell, the result is that an already slim 52-48 majority became even slimmer; Republicans will have just 51 seats in the Senate, while Democrats and the two independents who caucus with them will have 49.
Mr. McConnell was asked Friday whether he blamed Mr. Bannon for the loss.
“Well, let me just say this,” Mr. McConnell replied, suppressing a sly smile. “The political genius on display of throwing away a seat in the reddest state in America is hard to ignore.”
Mr. McConnell still has painful memories of the 2010 and 2012 election cycles, in which Republicans nominated Tea Party candidates who could not appeal to a general election audience. So in 2015,Mr. McConnell helped create the Senate Leadership Fund, a political action committee aimed at protecting and expanding the Republican majority. He alluded to the fund in his remarks on Friday.
“We continued with a different approach in 2016,” he said. “What was the difference? We didn’t nominate people who couldn’t win in November.”
The bad blood between Mr. McConnell and Mr. Bannon is no secret — they have been publicly feuding for months. In November, Mr. Bannon vowed to oust Mr. McConnell as majority leader, saying in an interview, “I have an objective that Mitch McConnell will not be majority leader,” adding that Mr. McConnell “has got to go.”
To that, Mr. McConnell replied, “Ha ha.”
