Initially, Trump had endorsed -- it seemed -- former Gov. Eric Greitens among a field of Republicans aiming to become the party's candidate for U.S. senator from Missouri.
But state party activists feared that Greitens's political baggage would make him a dead duck in the general election. So they ran a series of brutally negative ads against him using testimony from his divorce case, testimony they did not authenticate further. They did not note that all criminal charges had been dropped.
Greitens had been forced out as governor based on the marital discord and allegations he broke campaign finance rules -- allegations of a type which only seem to force conservatives from office.
But Greitens also took some hard blows in ads that portrayed him as excessively supportive of and friendly with China.
And last year, Schmitt filed a rather expensive lawsuit demanding that the Chinese Communist Party, Wuhan Institute for Virology, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences be held accountable for keeping the world in the dark about the severity of the covid menace. Predictably, that suit was tossed by a federal judge on July 9 on ground that the state AG lacked standing. Critics said Schmitt had been grandstanding via the taxpayer dime. (The U.S. Consititution puts the federal government at the helm of such matters.)
Apprised of the "Greitens problem," Trump kept touch with the anti-Greitens Republicans.
But fortunately for Trump, another Eric was a top contender, Eric Schmitt, Missouri's attorney general who won in a landslide. This then permitted Trump at the last minute to say that he was endorsing "Eric," while not giving a last name.
This quick-witted "endorsement" now allows Trump's political people to say that another winner had had Trump's backing.
At a Columbia, Mo., campaign stop just a few days ago, Schmitt broke his silence on keeping Mitch McConnell at the party's U.S. Senate helm. Schmitt agreed that McConnell must go after he moved to ditch Trump's attempts to have the 2022 election results blocked until properly verified.
But state party activists feared that Greitens's political baggage would make him a dead duck in the general election. So they ran a series of brutally negative ads against him using testimony from his divorce case, testimony they did not authenticate further. They did not note that all criminal charges had been dropped.
Greitens had been forced out as governor based on the marital discord and allegations he broke campaign finance rules -- allegations of a type which only seem to force conservatives from office.
But Greitens also took some hard blows in ads that portrayed him as excessively supportive of and friendly with China.
And last year, Schmitt filed a rather expensive lawsuit demanding that the Chinese Communist Party, Wuhan Institute for Virology, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences be held accountable for keeping the world in the dark about the severity of the covid menace. Predictably, that suit was tossed by a federal judge on July 9 on ground that the state AG lacked standing. Critics said Schmitt had been grandstanding via the taxpayer dime. (The U.S. Consititution puts the federal government at the helm of such matters.)
Apprised of the "Greitens problem," Trump kept touch with the anti-Greitens Republicans.
But fortunately for Trump, another Eric was a top contender, Eric Schmitt, Missouri's attorney general who won in a landslide. This then permitted Trump at the last minute to say that he was endorsing "Eric," while not giving a last name.
This quick-witted "endorsement" now allows Trump's political people to say that another winner had had Trump's backing.
At a Columbia, Mo., campaign stop just a few days ago, Schmitt broke his silence on keeping Mitch McConnell at the party's U.S. Senate helm. Schmitt agreed that McConnell must go after he moved to ditch Trump's attempts to have the 2022 election results blocked until properly verified.
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