“You can’t punch people in the face, punch people in the face, punch people in the face, and ask them to have tea and crumpets with you and think it’s all good,” Bevin, who has yet to commit to voting for McConnell, said in an interview. “Life doesn’t work that way.”…

At a closed-door lunch in the Senate’s Lyndon B. Johnson Room on Tuesday, McConnell received a loud round of applause after detailing his path to victory and laying out the GOP roadmap to a majority, attendees said. To rev up the 45-member caucus, McConnell played the video of the victory speech of Oregon Republican Monica Wehby, who said that the “best way to defeat a bully is to stand up to him.”…

McConnell and Paul are also expected to speak at the Kentucky Republican Party’s Lincoln Day Dinner in early June in Louisville. And in an interview, Paul said he’s planning to stump for McConnell in late July in Northern Kentucky, an area of the state with pockets of rabidly conservative voters who aren’t enamored by the 29-year Senate veteran.

“It just takes time,” Paul said in an interview. “I think people are mad at first if you work real hard for your candidate and you lose … but over time you have to weigh getting someone who supports President Obama’s policies vs. getting someone who supports Republican ideas.”