Great news for Fifth District Republican Bob Good: he doesn’t have the endorsement of Donald Trump, but, now, Matt Gaetz, his backing will probably be huge.
“I speak for all of MAGA when I say, we don’t want another McCarthy plant in Congress. We want Bob Good, one of the best legislators doing the people’s work in that disgusting swamp,” Gaetz, a Florida Republican congressman, kinda, sorta, said this week.
I characterize this as Gaetz kinda, sorta saying this because these weren’t actually his words, but rather, those of a Twitter guy named George – one name, like Madonna.
Gaetz’s contribution was to add to the retweet: “Vote for @RepBobGood.”
Trump, last week, before his conviction on 34 felony counts in a Manhattan fraud trial, endorsed Good’s opponent in the Fifth District Republican primary, State Sen. John McGuire, making it more about Good than about McGuire when he wrote that Good is “bad for Virginia, and bad for the USA.”
What makes Good “bad for Virginia, and bad for the USA” to Trump is that Good, last year, endorsed Florida Gov. Ron Desantis for the Republican presidential nomination.
Good tried to kiss and make up after Desantis dropped out of the race in February, but you don’t kiss and make up with Trump, whose stooges in TrumpWorld made it clear that Good was persona non grata going forward.
On Thursday, a group of Fifth District Republican leaders sent a letter to Trump asking him to reconsider his endorsement of McGuire, saying McGuire “has a history of lying to the voters and only representing his own ambitions rather than the needs of his constituents,” and blasting him for “relying on millions of dollars from outside Virginia to support his candidacy.”
“We hope President Trump reconsiders his ill-advised endorsement and stands with the Grassroots America First supporters of Congressman Bob Good,” the group, led by Rick Buchanan, the chair of the Fifth District Republican Congressional Committee, wrote in the letter.
TrumpWorld has remained silent on that request. Its most recent meddling in the Good-McGuire race was a cease-and-desist letter telling the Good campaign to take down campaign signs featuring Trump’s name, saying in the letter that “producing and displaying materials that give the false impression that President Trump is supportive of your candidacy is a fraud on the voters of the 5th Congressional District.”