Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., on Tuesday urged his fellow Republicans to focus on the failures of the Biden administration and not on the 2020 election.
During McConnell's weekly press conference, he was asked if he was comfortable with Republicans seeking office in the 2022 midterms embracing Trump, with whom McConnell has sparred over the election.
"Well I do think we need to be talking about the future, not the past," McConnell responded, according to The Hill.
“I think the American people are focusing on this administration ... it’s my hope that the 2022 election will be a referendum on the performance of the current administration, not a rehash about suggestions of what may have happened in 2020," he said.
Trump has continued his assertions that the 2020 election was stolen from him, making the statement at rallies and in press statements issued through his Save America PAC.
McConnell disputed those claims in a speech on the Senate floor earlier this year, saying that there was no evidence of fraud "anywhere near the massive scale that would have tipped this entire election."
Trump has fired back at McConnell, saying he should be removed from his position of leadership for helping Democrats get the short-term debt ceiling rather than continuing to fight them. He also has slammed McConnell for not backing him on his claims of election fraud.
"Mitch McConnell should have challenged that election because even back then, we had plenty of material to challenge that election. He should have challenged the election," he told a recent Iowa rally.