Top GOP Donor: ‘Bannon’s Star Is Rising,’ McConnell’s Fading

A top GOP donor said on Tuesday that he will probably not give more money to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY) preferred candidates and may consider giving to some of former White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon’s grassroots conservative candidates.

Dan Eberhart, a finance and oil executive who has made significant contributions to Republican candidates, told MSNBC host Ari Melber on The Beat with Ari Melber, that establishment Republicans in Congress absolutely need to now worry about losing his support.

“McConnell’s star is faded a little bit and Bannon’s star is rising,” he said.

Eberhart revealed that he recently met with Bannon, whom he said is a “brilliant strategist” who is now “emboldened” after grassroots conservative candidate Judge Roy Moore thumped D.C. establishment Senator Luther Strange in the Alabama GOP Senate runoff.

Eberhart said that the Republican establishment’s backing of D.C. establishment Senator Luther Strange (R-AL) “completely backfired.”

“As opposed to saving one of their own, they have emboldened Bannon and emboldened a bunch of conservative voters across America ready for change,” he said, adding that grassroots voters want to use the GOP majority to get legislative accomplishments like repealing and replacing Obamacare.

On Monday’s Hannity on Fox News, Bannon said that many donors were getting sick and tired of establishment figures like Karl Rove and Steven Law fleecing them for millions of dollars and wasting their money on candidates like Strange. Law’s group that is aligned with McConnell reportedly spent at least $10 million in Alabama against Moore.

“Karl Rove, Steven Law, these guys should get the joke. Their donors are coming to us because they are tired of having their money burned up by trying to destroy people like Judge Moore,” Bannon told Hannity. “It’s a new game in town. We are to cut off the oxygen to Mitch McConnell. Mitch McConnell’s biggest asset is the money. We’re going to make it the biggest liability. We’re going after these guys tooth and nail.”

Though he praised McConnell for getting Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch confirmed, Eberhart blasted the Republican leadership for their “failure to get something done” on Obamacare after having told voters and donors so many times over the last decade that they would do so once they controlled all three branches of government. He said the GOP leadership “elevated it where it’s core to the brand,” and Melber said repealing and replacing Obamacare was core to the GOP’s marketing but may not be “core to their product.”

Eberhart said the GOP establishment’s failure to repeal Obamacare “is a great travesty” and asked “what’s the point” of Republicans controlling Congress if they “don’t have a plan to use the majority to pass legislation.”