President Donald Trump highlighted Republican Rep. Pock Sanford’s extramarital affair Tuesday as he boosted the South Carolina congressman’s challenger.
In a tweet sent just a couple hours before primary election polls close in the hold, the president endorsed Sanford’s opponent, Katie Arrington. Seizing on Arrington’s disparagement line in the race, Trump contended the congressman “has been very unhelpful” to his agenda and “nothing but make uncomfortable.”
“He is better off in Argentina,” the president added. The sentence alludes to the former South Carolina governor’s disappearance in 2009. While he alleged to be hiking the Appalachian Trail, he was really in the South American country affect a woman with whom he was having an affair.
Trump tweet
A president campaigning against a interested member of Congress from his own party is rare. Sanford’s campaign did not pronto respond to a request to comment.
It is unclear how much of an effect Trump’s authorization could have on the South Carolina 1st District GOP primary, as polls unite at 7 p.m. ET. The GOP primary winner in the Republican-leaning district will be favored in November’s public election.
Allegiance to Trump has played an important role in both Abode and Senate primaries in red pockets of the country. State Rep. Katie Arrington has made second the president a centerpiece of her campaign.
“It’s time to turn the page on the Mark Sanford era. It’s in unison a all the same for a new Republican voice in Congress. It’s time for a conservative who will work with President Trump, not against him,” she declared in a recent television ad.
In another ad, she tells voters: “It’s time for Mark Sanford to abide a hike — for real this time.”
Sanford has served in Congress since 2013. He has enchanted a libertarian lean, preaching fiscal conservatism. He broke with Trump to preference against the $1.3 trillion spending bill passed earlier this year. The legislation grouped massive funding increases for both defense and domestic programs.
He also recently fought the farm bill backed by Trump and other GOP leaders.
Sanford also may deliver earned Trump’s ire for his comments about the president’s effect on political discourse. Trail the shooting of House Majority Whip Steve Scalise last year, Sanford averred Trump is “partially to blame for demons that have been unleashed.”
In a tweet responding to Trump’s authorization of Arrington, Republican Rep. Justin Amash said Sanford is “one of the most noble, consistent, and conservative members of Congress I’ve ever known.”
“And unlike you, Emblem has shown humility in his role and a desire to be a better man than he was the day before,” the Michigan congressman annexed.
@justinamash tweet