After a new report from POLITICO published this weekend caught failed politician John James trashing President Trump for the first time on a private video conference with African American community leaders, the James campaign scrambled to change the candidate’s tune and make clear: James is still with Trump “2000%.”
Trump has “heavily promoted” and endorsed James in his “uphill” campaigns and James has “publicly touted his support from the White House” and said last cycle in a video — which he later tried to delete and scrub from the internet — that he supports the president “2,000%.” Now, as Trump’s approval has “ebbed” in Michigan, and the state is now a “particular trouble spot” for his re-election campaign, James is telling some audiences what he thinks they want to hear. POLITICO reported that Trump aides are “suspicious that James is trying to have it both ways” in his support for Trump, and were “less enthusiastic” and “rankled” when James launched another Senate campaign last year.
The James campaign quickly clarified to The Hill “that James supports the president and that his remarks should not be interpreted as an effort to distance himself from Trump.” Then, after nearly a year of hiding from the Michigan press, James was forced to give an interview to the Detroit News on Saturday to try to clean up the mess and make clear that “his stance” on Trump “hadn’t changed.”
“John James is a phony politician who’s on tape supporting Donald Trump ‘2000%’ and is now privately trashing the president behind closed doors in an election year when it’s politically convenient,” said DSCC spokesperson Stewart Boss. “It’s more proof John James is only ever looking out for himself and his own political self-interest, not what’s best for Michigan, and a reminder for voters why they have no reason to trust anything he says.”
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
POLITICO: The one Republican Senate candidate willing to call out Donald Trump
The Hill: Michigan Republican Senate candidate notes places ‘I disagree with’ Trump
Detroit News: James says he’s been making same statements on Trump ‘for years’
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