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| Photo Credit: Bloomberg |
Former US President Donald Trump has endorsed Katie Britt in Alabama’s Republican Senate race describing her as an “Incredible fighter”, Politico reports. Mr Trump made the announcement on Friday just hours after two new polls was released showing Britt with a double-digit lead over Rep. Mo Brooks.
Last year Mr Trump endorsed Brooks but in March he turned around and withdrew his support following problems with the Brooks campaign. The endorsement is most likely to bolster the chances of Britt in the June 21 runoff.
“Mo has been wanting it back ever since,” Trump said in a
statement Friday, referring to when he rescinded his support, “but I cannot
give it to him! Katie Britt, on the other hand, is a fearless America First
Warrior,” according to Politico.
In July of last year Mr Trump called Ms Britt the
“assistant” to “the RINO Senator from Alabama, close friend of Old Crow Mitch
McConnell, Richard Shelby.”
“She is not in any way qualified and is certainly not what
our country needs,” Politico quoted Trump to have said at the time. “For Mitch
McConnell to be wasting money on her campaign is absolutely outrageous. Vote
for Mo Brooks!”
Britt was a Senate aide to Shelby and worked as Shelby’s
chief of staff and later became president of the Business Council of Alabama.
According to Politico, the Senate Leadership Fund, a
McConnell-aligned super PAC, gave $2 million this spring to a pro-Britt group,
though SLF said its involvement in the race was merely an anti-Brooks effort.
In the May 24 primary, Britt failed to get the 50 percent
threshold necessary to avoid a runoff and finished 15 percentage points ahead
of Brooks.
“The opposition says Katie is close to Mitch McConnell, but
actually, she is not — in fact, she believes that McConnell put Mike Durant in
the race to stop her, which is very possibly true,” Politico quoted Trump to
have said in a bid to walk back his past public statements about Britt
suggesting that she was the favored candidate of his estranged GOP ally, McConnell.
“I’m thankful to have President Trump’s endorsement and
strong support,” Britt said in a statement to POLITICO. “President Trump knows
that Alabamians are sick and tired of failed, do-nothing career politicians.
It’s time for the next generation of conservatives to step up and shake things
up in Washington to save the country we know and love for our children and our
children’s children.”