McConnell and Rick Dearborn, the White House deputy chief of staff, also were instrumental at various points in the process. Trump, several sources say, had no idea that Brooks disparaged him until Kushner passed along the news, and it sunk any chances of Trump endorsing him. (The White House official denied this, saying Kushner never spoke about Brooks or the Alabama race to the president.) (The White House official dismissed the anti-Bannon notion as “totally untrue.”)But Kushner misread the mood of Alabama Republicans. “Kushner wants to show Trump he is the smarter of the two, but it is not working,” said a friend of Bannon’s.

Source: Huffington Post September 28, 2017 14:02 UTC