Breitbart News senior editor-at-large Joel Pollak told MSNBC’s Ali Velshi on Monday afternoon that the Republican establishment had picked a large number of “losers” in congressional races.

Pollak was responding to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and his criticism of Breitbart News executive chairman Steve Bannon earlier that day in the White House Rose Garden.

McConnell responded to Bannon’s threat to back challengers to incumbent Republicans in Senate primary races by insisting: “You have to nominate people who can win because winners make policy and losers go home.” He specifically named 2010 candidates Christine O’Donnell (Delaware) and Sharon Angle (Nevada), and 2012 candidates Todd Akin (Missouri) and Richard Mourdock (Indiana), as examples.

However, Pollak noted that many of the candidates that Senate leadership had backed had been poor choices, ranging from Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana — who “basically didn’t live there anymore” — to former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, who later became a Democrat.

“If Mitch McConnell had his way, Charlie Crist would have been the Republican nominee for Senate in Florida [in 2010] instead of Marco Rubio. I mean, you can find so many examples of the establishment picking losers.”

Pollak also noted that the fundamental problem the Republican Senate faced was its failure to deliver on its promise — a failure that even moderate, establishment Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) had admitted.

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