(NewsGlobal.com)- According to an anonymously-sourced report from the Washington Post, tech billionaire Peter Thiel has been engaged in a “high-stakes game of chicken” with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell over PAC funding in support of Arizona Republican Senate candidate Blake Masters.
According to the Post, back in May, McConnell had called Thiel to congratulate him on JD Vance winning the Ohio Senate primary and during the call had asked if Thiel would continue financing Vance’s campaign into the general election. Thiel agreed.
But, according to anonymous sources, after Masters won the Arizona Senate primary, Mitch McConnell made no similar request.
The Post claims that since Masters’ victory, McConnell and Thiel were in a “high-stakes game of chicken” that culminated in late August with McConnell pulling $8 million in scheduled advertising in Arizona from the Senate Leadership Fund PAC.
According to the sources, McConnell told Thiel last week that the Vance campaign was proving more expensive for the PAC and it would help if Thiel’s PAC could pick up the slack in Arizona by donating directly to the Senate Leadership Fund.
McConnell offered to split the costs in Arizona by having the Senate Leadership Fund match whatever Thiel would sink into McConnell’s PAC. But Thiel refused.
Here’s the bottom line.
McConnell never wanted Thiel to fund his own PACs to support either Vance or Masters. Instead, McConnell wanted Thiel to donate that money to the Senate Leadership PAC, claiming Thiel’s money would “go further.”
According to their anonymous sources, Thiel and McConnell argued over claims that Vance and Masters were attacking McConnell’s leadership. McConnell allegedly claimed that he wasn’t canceling the scheduled advertising out of revenge, adding that he wasn’t like Donald Trump.
McConnell’s office, the Senate Leadership PAC, and Peter Thiel all refused to comment on the Washington Post’s anonymously-sourced story.
The Washington Post conceded that McConnell’s Senate Leadership Fund still has $8 million in advertising scheduled for Arizona in October.
Meanwhile, Donald Trump’s “Save America” PAC, which is ostensibly to get Republicans elected in the midterms, is sitting on $200 million that has yet to be spent on advertising for any Trump-endorsed Republican candidates.
