Graham backs Lara Trump for North Carolina Senate, as Walker hits back



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Republican Senate candidate Mark Walker of North Carolina is pushing back a prediction by Senator Lindsey Graham of neighboring South Carolina.

Graham, a major ally and supporter of former President Donald Trump, said the vote in removing GOP Senator Richard Burr of North Carolina on Saturday to convict Trump in his impeachment trial will return the former’s daughter-in-law president – Lara Trump – a Shoe-in to win the 2022 Republican nomination to succeed Burr.

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“I think the biggest winner of this whole impeachment trial is Lara Trump,” Graham announced on “Fox News Sunday.” “My dear friend Richard Burr, whom I love and have been friends with for a long time, has just made Lara Trump almost the certain candidate for the Senate seat in North Carolina to replace him if she comes forward, and I would certainly be behind her because I think she represents the future of the Republican Party. “

Fast forward 24 hours and Walker – the only major Republican to date to enter the race – took issue with Graham’s comments.

“In the words of John Ashcroft, I believe Lindsey is always confident but not always right,” Walker said Monday morning on FOX Business’s “Mornings with Maria,” as he paraphrased the former United States Attorney General and Senator and Governor of Missouri. .

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Walker said he was not careful that other potential candidates might jump in the race for the North Carolina Senate, which will likely be one of the most contested and costly Senate battles of the year. next as the Republicans try to win back a majority in the house they just lost. in the 2020 electoral cycle.

“We can’t control what other people are doing,” Walker stressed. “This is something we are focused on because it is in our heart to do it, service has been part of our life for almost a quarter of a century and we will continue to do so.”

Burr announced in his last election in 2016 that he would not run for a fourth term in 2022. Walker, a former congressman and three-term minister, launched his Senate bid in early December, with his announcement shared for the first times with Fox News.

While Walker, who chaired the conservative Republican study group, is the first Republican candidate to enter the race, he is unlikely to be the only one to declare his candidacy. Former Governor Pat McCrory, if he runs for the Senate, would be a serious contender.

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Much like Trump, the 38-year-old wife of Trump’s son Eric. The former television producer, who was a senior advisor to the then president’s 2020 re-election campaign, was born and raised in North Carolina, although she and Eric Trump and their children currently live in the suburbs northern New York.

In November and December, Lara Trump flirted with the possibility of running for the Senate, including retweeting a poll suggesting she would lead the GOP if she entered the race.

But she has been silent since the storming of the U.S. Capitol on January 6 by right-wing extremists and other Trump supporters with the intention of disrupting Congressional certification of Joe Biden’s victory over Trump at the ‘presidential election.

Doug Heye, a former Republican National Committee spokesperson and a native of North Carolina who worked for Mr Burr, took issue with Graham’s prediction that Burr’s condemnation vote would boost Lara Trump.

“I don’t see how Saturday’s vote affects this at all,” Heye argued. “You have to do some crazy kind of algebra and trick your math to get it.”

Heye admitted that if Trump showed up, “she could raise a ton of money,” but wondered if she would actually start a campaign.

The House voted on Jan. 13 – a week after the attack on Capitol Hill – to impeach the then president on a count of inciting insurgency, with 10 House Republicans joining the 222 Democrats in bedroom. Seven Republicans, including Burr, joined the Senate’s 50 Democrats on Saturday to vote to condemn Trump. But with 67 votes needed to convict, Trump was acquitted.

Walker took to Twitter to disagree with Burr’s vote, writing, “Bad vote, Senator Burr. I’m running to replace Richard Burr because North Carolina needs a real Tory champion as their next Senator. . “

And Walker has said he supports the efforts of the North Carolina GOP to censor Burr for his vote to condemn Trump.

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Walker said on FOX Business Monday that he disagreed with a speech by GOP Senate leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Minutes after Trump’s acquittal. McConnell, who voted for Trump’s acquittal, stressed that there was no doubt that the former president was “practically and morally responsible” for provoking an insurgency and stressed that Trump could still be the subject of criminal proceedings.

“I don’t agree with him,” Walker said.

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The other Republican Senator from North Carolina, Thom Tillis, also voted for Trump’s acquittal, but like McConnell, used his post-verdict statement to potentially call on prosecutors to indict the former president, claiming that “the Trump’s ultimate responsibility goes through our criminal justice system ”.

Asked about the current rift within the Republican Party between Trump loyalists and conservatives seeking to push the party beyond the Trump era, when the then president reshaped and ruled the GOP, Walker said said: “There are divisions but there are also opportunities to bring people together.”

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