But even Fox News is a house divided on the topic, a perfect reflection of how the Oz endorsement has confounded pro-Trumpers.
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On Monday, Sean Hannity featured Oz as a guest so the candidate could talk up his conservative cred. Hannity was reportedly one of the main people pulling for the Oz endorsement. But if one thing has come to light through Trump’s pretty horrendous string of 2022 endorsements, it’s that Trump toadies like Hannity haven’t exactly given him the soundest advice.
On the show, Hannity proceeded to give Oz his personal seal of approval, claiming that the feedback he had gotten on Trump’s backing was “99% supportive.”
“When I supported Donald Trump pretty early, I got the crap beaten out of me—Glenn Beck, Ben Shapiro,” Hannity recalled of 2016, “and I promised people he’d govern as a conservative, and he did. And I’m saying the same thing about you.”
But not all Fox hosts agree. Laura Ingraham followed Hannity’s segment with one in which she interviewed Kellyanne Conway, who’s now working with a Super PAC that supports Oz’s No. 1 rival, businessman David McCormick.
“Kellyanne, do you think the Trump endorsement of Oz was a mistake?” Ingraham asked, before quickly adding, “You wouldn’t answer the question of whether it was a mistake. I think it was a mistake for Trump to endorse Oz. I’ll say it; I’m not afraid to say it.”
Parnell, who also backs McCormick, told Politico that his phone has been “ringing off the hook from committee chairs in Pennsylvania saying, ‘What the heck is going on? What was President Trump thinking?’”
The chaos that has erupted among Trump acolytes both within and outside the state has some Pennsylvania Republicans worried.
Oz backer Gloria “Lee” Snover, chair of the Northampton Republican Party, said of the criticism, “Unless you’re really wanting to damage us in the general, I don’t know why you’re continuing this. … Okay, it happened. It’s done. You’re going to continue to trash the Republican Party? Please stop.”
The primary takes place on May 17. Oz and McCormick have been duking it out for first on the Republican side, where McCormick has held a slight but consistent edge and was also gunning for Trump’s blessing. But recent polling has also suggested a sizable chunk of Keystone State Republicans remained undecided prior to Trump weighing in.
McCormick has lined up some prominent backers of his own, such as Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, who has campaigned with McCormick.
But Trump, the thinnest skinned of them all, hasn’t yet announced a visit to the state to rally behind Oz. Instead, he seems content to let the candidate dangle in the wind for a bit to see how he fares.
Of course, Trump could have simply waited out the primary after his first endorsee in the state went down in flames. Instead, he muddled the race by choosing the less popular candidate—a fellow TV huckster with dodgy political chops.
Welcome to Trump’s club, Pennsylvania.
Source by www.dailykos.com
