Mitch McConnell and his allies ready for war with Steve Bannon

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, never afraid of hardball politics, is determined to finish the Republican civil war that Steve Bannon started.

“This guy has extraordinarily toxic relationships and views,” Josh Holmes, McConnell’s former chief of staff and a close confidant, said of Bannon in an interview with the Washington Examiner. “If we’re not talking about him in October of 2017, the Democrats will be talking about him in October of 2018.”

President Trump’s former chief White House strategist is recruiting candidates to challenge Republican incumbents in 2018 primaries, with the main goal of ousting McConnell’s allies and replacing him as majority leader.

After deliberating how seriously to treat Bannon’s threats, and taking a cue from the Kentucky Republican, “McConnell World” — the majority leader, his super PAC, and cadre of Senate office alumni and other allies sprinkled throughout Republican politics — decided to join the fight and escalate it.

Senate Leadership Fund, run by McConnell alumnus Steven Law, posted a tweet within days that accused Bannon of being anti-Semitic based on a news story from the 2016 campaign, and asked Danny Tarkanian, the challenger he is backing in the primary against Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., if he supported the views of his benefactor.