Rep. Tom Rice (R-SC), one of the 10 House Republicans who impeached ex-President Donald Trump for inciting the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, put out a scathing statement on Saturday after the former president bashed him during a South Carolina rally for Rice’s primary challenger.
“Trump is here because, like no one else I’ve ever met, he is consumed by spite,” Rice retorted in the statement shortly after Trump-endorsed Russell Fry’s rally on Saturday. “I took one vote he didn’t like and now he’s chosen to support a yes man candidate who has and will bow to anything he says, no matter what.”
“If you want a Congressman who supports political violence in Ukraine or in the United States Capitol, who supports party over country, who supports a would-be tyrant over the Constitution, and who makes decisions based solely on re-election, then Russell Fry is your candidate,” the GOP lawmaker continued.
Trump had called Rice a “total fool” over his impeachment vote and mocked how the South Carolina Republican Party had voted to censure the congressman after the impeachment.
“He’s respected by no one, he’s laughed at in Washington, he was never thought highly of in Washington,” the former president ranted on Saturday.
Rice, like six of the other House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump last year, is running for reelection in the face of revenge-hungry Trump’s efforts to get him kicked out of office in the upcoming midterms.
Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI) hasn’t officially announced a reelection bid, but the Washington Post notes that the Michigan Republican’s been fundraising and putting out ads touting his achievements, suggesting that he hasn’t necessarily been scared off from staying in Congress.
Reps. John Katko (R-NY) and Anthony Gonzalez (R-OH) are retiring, and so is Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL), the only other Republican besides Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) on the House Jan. 6 Committee.
More, please…
This is going to be fun to watch.
I can’t seem to track down the actual statement, but there’s no reporting of any of the groveling and trying to have it both ways you get, none of this “we’ll never see eye to eye on this one issue” stuff like Pence does. And I think it’s a sign of a growing willingness to say you trashed our reputation, you did one after another appalling thing, you ignored a pandemic and then lost us the Senate and the White House so you know what? I’m going to do the worst possible thing to you and say exactly what I actually think ails you. And I’m going to stick around afterward because I know what my voters want and I know how to count, and for once I think I can do what I actually want myself and get away with it. You want to start something, here I am, pal.
Dear Democrat politicians, my biased opinion…
THIS is how the party should choose to message in general around Trump and his ilk.
Yes to all of this.
I also have to say that events in Ukraine may be adding fuel to Rice’s version of this particular fire, as people’s memories get jogged regarding Trump’s favor-asking of Zelensky in return for those promised weapons.
Sure–the GOP is dumber than a bag of hammers right now, but I have to believe that just about everyone in that party except for the mouth-breathers has taken several huge sighs of relief that Trump isn’t in office while the invasion is taking place. They know he’d have done all he could to avoid providing anything like the leadership Biden has shown in rallying EU and NATO support for Ukraine. Rather than being forced to pay lip-service to Trump’s do-nothing strategy, they instead are free to make what hay they can out of higher gas prices.