McConnell, opponent react to secret audio tape with Koch brothers

(CNN) – Democrats are hyperventilating over audio obtained by The Nation, of Minority Leader Mitch McConnell saying the GOP will be attaching "riders" on the spending bill, to force the President's hand on everything from Obamacare to funding for the EPA. He made the comments two months ago to a group of donors, including the Koch brothers.

"We will be pushing back against this bureaucracy by doing what's called placing riders in the bill. No money can be spent to do this or to do that. We're going to go after them on healthcare, on financial services, on the environmental protection agency, across the board," McConnell is heard saying on the tape.

Both the senator and his opponent responded to the news in exclusive interviews with CNN's Dana Bash.

"I think it Mitch McConnell got caught in his 47% Mitt Romney moment, I think it shows the extent and the lengths he will go to to pander to his party millionaires and billionaires at the expense of hurting Kentuckians," Democratic candidate Alison Lundergan Grimes told CNN.

"I didn't say anything in the private meeting I haven't said publicly," McConnell told CNN.

Indeed the Senate Minority Leader said essentially the same thing to Politico last week.

CNN's Dana Bash and The New York Times' Jonathan Martin, whose new piece for The New York Times Magazine is "Mitch McConnell is headed down the stretch," join CNN's "The Lead with Jake Tapper" to discuss.