A high Republican has simply taken away her endorsement from a House candidate as a result of he stated one thing about Donald Trump that wasn’t reward.
Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), the House’s third-ranking Republican, introduced Thursday on social media that she had withdrawn her endorsement of Craig Riedel, a GOP former state consultant operating for Congress from Ohio.
“I was very disappointed in his inappropriate comments regarding President Trump,” Stefanik stated. “As we begin 2024, my focus is on ensuring we nominate the strongest candidates on the ballot who are committed to electing President Trump this November and expanding our House GOP Majority.”
Riedel’s crime? He stated he wouldn’t endorse Trump and recommended his behavior of insulting individuals will not be presidential.
“I think he is arrogant. I don’t like the way he calls people names. I just don’t think that’s very becoming of a president,” Riedel stated in an audio recording posted by right-wing activist Charlie Kirk final month.
Stefanik’s un-endorsement is the most recent sign of the Republican Party’s full and complete loyalty to Donald Trump, at the same time as he faces a slew of legal indictments, together with for his efforts to steal the 2020 election and incite the Jan. 6, 2021, riot on the Capitol.
Within an hour of the recording logging on, Riedel introduced he would, in actual fact, endorse Trump and claimed {that a} “trickster” aligned with Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) had goaded him into making anti-Trump statements.
But the harm had been completed. Rep. Max Miller (R-Ohio) instantly rescinded his Riedel endorsement, and days later Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) introduced he would help Riedel’s opponent within the Republican main, J.R. Majewski.
Some Republicans had beforehand hoped Riedel would beat Majewski within the GOP main as a result of Riedel would doubtless be a stronger candidate within the basic election. Majewski did not unseat Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio) in 2022 after it got here out that Majewski had lied about his navy service.
Majewski recommended this week that Riedel was the larger fraud, saying on social media that Riedel had “presented himself as a Trump supporter and accepted hundred of thousands in campaign cash knowing he was a closet never-Trumper.”
Stefanik, for her half, has criticized Trump in harsher phrases than Riedel used. For occasion, Stefanik stated, “I think he has been insulting to women” in 2015, in keeping with CNN.
