LANSING — Today, Mike Rogers endorsed Donald Trump for President and embraced dangerous conspiracy theories after facing criticism in the “caustic” and “radioactive” GOP primary. Rogers’ endorsement comes after he refused to endorse Trump in the 2016 or 2020 elections.
“Mike Rogers is desperately trying to hide his previous criticism as he cozies up to Trump and embraces dangerous election conspiracy theories,” said Michigan Democratic Party Chair Lavora Barnes. “Rogers has made clear that he is too extreme for Michigan as he caves to political pressure to help himself get ahead.”
The Detroit News reported that Rogers has now embraced widely-debunked election conspiracy theories – now claiming that the 2020 election was full of “attempts to cheat” and included a “bag of ballots found under the desk of a clerk, unopened.” This is in direct contrast to Rogers’ 2021 op-ed where he proclaimed Republicans should stop “battling unfounded conspiracy theories” over the “free and fair elections.”
Rogers’ endorsement comes after he faced criticism in the crowded GOP primary for making “his career around bashing President Trump.” Former Trump staffers have called Rogers a “deep state operative” and said that they “can’t imagine a worse or more dangerous ‘Republican’ candidate for Senate than Mike Rogers.”
Here’s what you need to know about Mike Rogers and Donald Trump:
- Rogers described Trump as “more gangster than presidential.”
- Rogers thought that Republican primary voters wanted a “sober, issues-based campaign” “as an antidote to the Trump years.”
- When talking about Trump, Rogers said that the people he talked with “on a daily basis are looking for new leadership” and looking for “a leader who is focused on the real issues, not just sugar high politics and the tweet of the day.”
- Rogers said that Trump’s legal controversies are “just absolutely ripping the fabric of the United States apart.”
- Rogers left the Trump transition team in 2016, after Trump replaced Chris Christie with Mike Pence as the lead.
- Rogers described Trump’s actions during the impeachment hearing as “highly inappropriate.”
- In 2022, Rogers said that “Trump’s time has passed” and described Trump’s tactics as “clearly destructive.”
- Rogers criticized Trump’s calls to change the election and the January 6 insurrection, saying “There is never a time in American democracy when violence accomplishes what you want. … It is giving up on our Constitution when you storm the Capitol to try to change an election.”
- In response to Trump defending his son’s meeting with a Russian lawyer during the presidential campaign, Rogers ripped him apart saying “we should not normalize this behavior.”
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