HMM: Mitch McConnell: Trump Is Underestimated.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) predicted Tuesday that Donald Trump, the presumptive GOP nominee, will be more competitive in November than many political analysts expect.

McConnell told reporters he is buoyed by a new Quinnipiac poll showing Trump within a few points of Hillary Clinton, the likely Democratic nominee, in Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania, three crucial battlegrounds.

“It looks to me like at the beginning of the race, Florida and Pennsylvania and Ohio look pretty competitive,” he said.

The Quinnipiac survey, conducted from April 27 to May 8, showed Trump leading Clinton by four points in Ohio, and trailing the former first lady by only one point in Florida and Pennsylvania.

McConnell told reporters at the end of last year that he saw it as extremely important the eventual GOP nominee for president be able to win in such so-called purple states. At the time, his comments were interpreted as indicating a preference for more mainstream candidates such as Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) or former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.

McConnell said he is looking forward to meeting with Trump Thursday morning at the National Senatorial Campaign Committee, near the Capitol.

“I think most of my members believe he’s won the nomination the old fashioned way, he got more votes than anybody else and we respect the voices of the Republican primary voters across the country and we’ll sit down and talk about the way forward,” he said.

He declined, however, to say what specific points he would bring up with the candidate.

When things suck economically — and they do, and ordinary people know it’s worse than the official happy-face story — old fashioned Democratic populist messages sell, and that’s what Trump’s selling.