MORE TRUMP CREATURES RUNNING FOR THE U.S. SENATE

 

         …Mo Brooks (R-Ala) a true believer in Trump’s false claims of “Voter fraud”

 

It’s amazing the mis-information that many Americans will actually believe

 

Part 2:

Mo Brooks is the creature that supported President Trump by firing-up the mob for the “Stop the Steal” rally that preceded the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.  At the rally, Brooks had urged participants to “start taking down names and kicking ass.”

Mo Brooks,, has doubled down on Trump’s voter fraud claims and has not only defended but embraced his own leading role in attempting to challenge the electoral vote count.  This included a long speech that day at the “Stop the Steal” rally and continued even after the violent mob stormed the Capitol.

“In 2020, we had the worst voter fraud and election theft in history,” Brooks said at his campaign kickoff, where he acknowledged speaking with Trump “three times in the last four weeks” about the Senate race.

Meanwhile, in Ohio, former state treasurer, Josh Mandel also has fully embraced the false election claims, while also taking pains to target Trump’s enemies inside the GOP.

“I think over time, we’re going to see studies come out that evidence widespread fraud,” Mandel told Cleveland-based WKYC-TV last month. “I think when we look back on this election, we’ll see in large part that it was stolen from President Trump.”

In a tweet this month, Mandel called Rep. Anthony Gonzalez, an Ohio Republican who voted to impeach Trump for inciting the insurrection, Mandel called Gonzalez a “traitor.”  This was after Trump had endorsed Gonzalez’s 2022 primary opponent.

Mandel’s rhetoric appears to have started a stampede to the right.  A second candidate also vying for Trump’s endorsement, former state Republican Party chair, Jane Timken, who also called for Gonzalez to resign and she endorsed a state legislative push to rename a state park for the former president Trump.

Republican operatives are confident many more competitive candidates will emerge in each race, giving GOP voters options that will be more palatable in a general election.

A second prominent Republican entered the Missouri race.  State Attorney General, Eric Schmitt, who is positioning himself as a solid pro-Trump conservative without ex-Missouri Governor, Greitens’s baggage.  Schmitt is a much more palatable candidate to Republican leaders in Washington than Greitens and he has already met with McConnell.  Other Republicans, including Reps. Jason Smith and Ann Wagner, also are exploring runs.

In Alabama, Mo Brooks’s main competition for Trump’s backing appears to be Lynda Blanchard.  A prominent and wealthy GOP donor who served as Trump’s ambassador to Slovenia.  In her launch video, Blanchard declared herself a “proud member of the MAGA movement” and a “true outsider” without parroting the voter-fraud myths.  Also publicly considering the race are Alabama Secretary of State, John Merrill and Katie Boyd Britt, a former Shelby aide who leads the Business Council of Alabama.

In Ohio, author and venture capitalist J.D. Vance also is weighing a run for the seat being vacated by GOP Sen. Rob Portman, as are several others including Reps. Warren Davidson and Steve Stivers.

Despite McConnell’s comments, Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) , the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, told reporters that his organization would not seek to insert itself into GOP primaries and that he trusted Republican voters to “pick well.”

But another GOP arm with close McConnell ties, the Senate Leadership Fund super PAC, has played in primaries, moving successfully to sideline firebrand conservative Kris Kobach in Kansas last year and to snuff out coal baron Don Blankenship’s campaign to unseat Senator Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) in 2018.  

An earlier Senate Leadership Fund effort in Alabama, it failed to derail the Senate campaign of Roy Moore, who won the nomination under a cloud of child sex abuse allegations and went on to lose to Democrat Doug Jones in 2017.

Rick Scott’s comments came after he met earlier this month with Trump at the former president’s Florida estate.  It was a discussion that Scott described as productive and focused on bringing Republicans together to win tough Senate races.

Although Scott said he asked Trump to get involved only after GOP voters select a nominee, he acknowledged that Trump made no commitment to do so. “I told him, ‘Look, I’m going to tell you what I like, and then you get to do whatever you want,’ ” he said. “It’s a choice he’s going to get to make, how he wants to be involved.”

Trump remains at odds with official Republican Party committees, including the National Republican Senate Committee (NRSC), over the use of his name and his likeness.

So far Trump has not waded into any Senate race, with one exception: In a brief statement earlier this month, he floated the candidacy of Herschel Walker, the star, former NFL running back.

“He would be unstoppable, just like he was when he played for the Georgia Bulldogs, and in the NFL,” Trump wrote. “Run Herschel, run!”

Although Walker has backed Trump in the past and spoken at GOP events, he has not publicly acknowledged any interest in running for the Senate and he currently resides in Texas.

Copyright G. Ater 2021