PA GOP senate candidates attack each other over Trump loyalty in PGH City Paper
PENNSYLVANIA — A new report from PGH City Paper, “An extensive list of all the times Sean Parnell criticized Donald Trump”, featured the latest dust up between Sean Parnell and Jeff Bartos over perceived allegiance (or lack thereof) to Former President Trump.
From PGH City Paper, An extensive list of all the times Sean Parnell criticized Donald Trump:
Before Trump secured the Republican nomination in 2016, Parnell criticized Trump often and in harsh terms. He called for Trump to release his tax returns (only to criticize liberals for focusing on tax returns a year later), he said Trump’s campaign was failing to unify the country, and he criticized Trump’s debate performance, all while openly endorsing and supporting Sen. Marco Rubio’s (R-Florida) run for president.
Parnell’s opponents have been quick to point out his past criticism of Trump. Jeff Bartos, a businessman who’s also running for the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate, ran digital ads on Google after Parnell’s announcement saying that Parnell “sided with liberals” and linked to Parnell’s 2016 tweet when he called for Trump to release his tax returns.
Parnell campaign spokesman Ian Prior responded to those ads, and attacked the Bartos campaign.
“Digging up old out-of-context tweets reeks of desperation. But what else would you expect from someone like Jeff Bartos who has personally donated to multiple Democrats who supported impeaching President Trump and removing him from office?” said Prior in a statement to Pittsburgh City Paper.
Conor McGuinness, spokesman for the Bartos campaign, pushed back against Parnell, reiterated calls about Parnell’s former Trump criticism, and brought up other instances where Parnell “sided with liberals,” including Parnell’s past support of mail-in voting. He said “frauds like Sean Parnell are what’s wrong with politics.”
“Glad to see Sean Parnell is admitting his support for Act 77, the disastrous legislation that cost President Trump the state of Pennsylvania and the Presidency, and agreeing that he sided with liberals in demanding Donald Trump release his tax returns,” said McGuinness. “Jeff Bartos has raised and donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to elect pro-Trump Republicans. We’ll gladly stack that up against Sean Parnell’s effort to sabotage President Trump’s re-election any day of the week.”
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