Mitch McConnell just sent a VERY clear message to Donald Trump about 2022

[superadmin]

(CNN)Mitch McConnell's entire being is -- and always has been -- focused on winning elections. Every move he makes and every thing he says is part of a broader effort to ensure that his side winds up with more seats -- and therefore more control -- than the other guys.

And, on Tuesday, McConnell made clear that he believes former President Donald Trump's ongoing focus on the 2020 election is decidedly detrimental to the GOP's chances in the upcoming midterm elections.

Asked by CNN's Manu Raju whether he was comfortable with candidates embracing Trump, McConnell said this:

"I do think we need to be thinking about the future and not the past. I think the American people are focusing on this administration, what it's doing to the country, and it's my hope the '22 election will be a referendum on the performance of the current administration, not a rehash of suggestions about what may have happened in 2020."

That's about as close as McConnell will get to outright refutation of Trump and the strategy, such as it is, that the former president is peddling -- a hard focus on trying to prove (nonexistent) voter fraud in the 2020 election.

While Trump's continued attempts to re-litigate the 2020 election have been ongoing for months, that effort went to another level in the last week when Trump suggested that unless the last election was overturned, future elections would be pointless.

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