Rep. Tom Rice said Trump is “devoured by malice” like “no one else” in a scathing statement after the ex-president campaigned for rival Rice in the MP’s own district on Saturday night.
Republican Rep. Tom Rice blasted Donald Trump as a “potential tyrant” in a scathing statement after the former president campaigned for the lawmaker’s main opponent at a Saturday night rally.
Trump is trying to remove Rice, whom he called a “total fool” for voting to impeach her along with nine other Republican lawmakers after the January 6 attack on the US Capitol.
Saturday’s rally was held in Florence, part of Rice’s 7th constituency. He has held the position for nearly a decade since 2013.
“Trump is here because, like no one else I’ve ever met, he’s consumed with malice,” Rice said in a statement obtained by WBTW late Saturday night.
“I took one vote that he didn’t like and now he’s decided to support a ‘yes’ candidate who leans in and will obey whatever he says no matter what.”
The congressman also targeted his main Trump-backed opponent, South Carolina Rep. Russell Fry. He said Fry was a “go-ahead” who supported Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine as well as last year’s capitol riot.
Trump’s rally was the first since Putin ordered his troops to attack a neighboring country.
“If you want a congressman who supports political violence in Ukraine or the United States Capitol, who supports a party, not a country, who supports a potential tyrant, not the Constitution, and who makes decisions solely on the basis of re-election, then Russell Fry is your candidate. Rice continued.
“If you want a congressman who doesn’t flinch before anyone, who votes for what’s right even when it’s hard, and who fought desperately for the Grand Strand and P.D., then I hope to earn your vote.”
Trump called Rice a “disaster” and a “total fool” for his impeachment vote after the Capitol riots.
Trump launched into his tirade against Rice, saying the legislator wanted to “stab our country in the back right here in the 7th congressional district.”
“Tom Rice, disaster, no one respects. They laugh at him in Washington. He was never highly regarded in Washington. And he’s just been denounced by your great South Carolina Republican Party,” he said to the mockery of the crowd.
“Tom Rice Joined Democrat Impeachment Witch Hunt – All Turned Out to be a Hoax”
Sporadic rain gave way to clear skies at Saturday’s Trump rally, though chilly winds persisted for several hours overnight and throughout the ex-president’s speech.
His third Save America event this year took place on a field near Florence Regional Airport. In addition to supporting Fry, Trump was also there to support Kathy Arrington, who is running to remove GOP member Nancy Mays from the nearby 1st congressional district.
Together, Mace and Rice represent nearly 200 miles of Palmetto State’s coastline.
Mays drew Trump’s ire when she broke up with him after the Capitol riot, telling NBC that he “endangered all of our lives” that day. The legislator did not vote to impeach him, and she did not vote to form a bipartisan committee to investigate the uprising. But she voted in contempt of court charges against former Trump adviser Steve Bannon during a House Select Committee inquiry on Jan. 6.
Trump fans enthusiastically booed any mention of Rice or fellow South Carolina Rep. Nancy Mays.
So far, Trump has backed eight contenders for the incumbent Republican legislature. Two in South Carolina
The ex-president derided Mace as “crazy Nancy” and a “terrible person” who “has no idea what he’s doing.”
The day after Trump endorsed Arrington, Mays videotaped herself outside Trump Tower in New York City touting herself as one of his “earliest supporters” and targeting her archrival.
Trump ridiculed her efforts on Saturday night.
“She is being completely manipulated by the raging Never Trumpers and radical left Democrats who are poisoning our country. She is a terrible person. And she has no idea what she’s doing,” he said.
“Immediately after I heard that I was going to support a really great person, another candidate, she went to New York and stood in front of the magnificent Trump Tower. Has anyone ever heard of Trump Tower… and made an advertisement suggesting that I support it.”
He called the stunt “false, like everything else she does”.
Trump also criticized Mays and Rice as “atrocious Rinos”.
“Fortunately, in June you have a chance to get rid of these high-profile losers and replace them with two unwavering American champions,” he said.
The main race in South Carolina will take place on June 14, the ex-president’s birthday.
Mays is a red borough located in Charleston and its booming suburbs, home to a mix of moderate Republicans, Democrats and Trump supporters. She used this to her advantage, warning that a Democrat could win the district if the Republicans pushed someone too far to the right.
History is on her side. In 2018, Arrington, her Trump-backed rival, successfully ousted incumbent GOP member Mark Sanford, who was sometimes an opponent of the then president. But Arrington lost the general election to Democrat Joe Cunningham, a painful defeat for the Republican Party.
Two House candidates supported by Trump at the rally, South Carolina Rep. Russell Fry (left) and Katie Arrington (right)
Mays reclaimed the county in 2020, and Cunningham is now in a tough campaign for governor.
In a video outside Trump Tower, Mays referred to Arrington’s 2018 defeat and said she was “more than qualified” to make way for a Democrat again.
Arrington called Mays a “corrupt” who is “more interested in becoming a mainstream media celebrity than in fighting for the people she’s supposed to represent.” Endorsing Arrington, Trump called Mays “an absolutely terrible candidate” and “very disloyal” to the Republican Party.
Rice, meanwhile, works in a more secure Republican neighborhood that stretches from Myrtle Beach golf courses to inland farms and communities like Florence. He is up against several challengers, including Russell Fry, a Trump-backed Republican state representative who said Rice damaged voter confidence by supporting impeachment.
For Rice, seeking his sixth term means traveling the county extensively to remind voters of what he sees as his legislative accomplishments. But he knows that some voters will only think of impeaching him, for which he was condemned by the state party.
“I’ll do my best to explain to them[голосование]and for this I do not need to conduct a confrontation, ”he said. This is what the policy should be.