By MARY SELL, Alabama Daily News
U.S. Senate candidate Mike Durant’s campaign on Thursday tried to distance itself from the anti-Trump Lincoln Project only to end the day with the “total and complete endorsement” of its co-founder.
Durant, a Republican from Huntsville, has for weeks pushed back against attacks that a co-founder of the Lincoln Project is supporting his campaign through contributing to a super PAC supporting his campaign. By law, candidates and outside super PACs cannot coordinate, so Durant has no control over who supports the PAC or what they say.
In one of the oddest days of the campaign so far, Durant took to Twitter to share a postcard he had purportedly received from Lincoln Project co-founder Rick Wilson. The note criticized Durant for supporting former President Donald Trump on the campaign trail. “Do you honestly think aligning yourself with Trump is a good idea?” the postcard said, noting that Trump had previously spoken harshly against other veterans who had been shot down and captured in combat.
On Twitter, Durant shared a photo of the postcard said Wilson and the Lincoln Project hate him because he’s a “pro-Trump, pro-gun conservative patriot.”
“It is no wonder why Rick Wilson and the Lincoln Project hate our campaign. I am a pro-Trump, pro-life and pro-gun conservative patriot who will fight the establishment in Washington. The RINOs like Wilson are scared of an outsider like me. They should be,” Durant tweeted.
But Wilson quickly took to Twitter himself with a brutal response, saying he didn’t send the postcard, didn’t ask anyone to do it on his behalf and “didn’t have a single (expletive) to give about you and haven’t bothered to follow your race.”
The origins of the postcard are still unknown, but at the end of the day the back and forth only served to get people talking about Durant and the anti-Trump group.
In one Twitter exchange, Wilson told Durant “you still have my total (and) complete endorsement.”
That is, of course, meant to be the kiss of death, considering how Trump Republicans loathe Wilson and the Lincoln Project.
See the twitter exchange below.
It is no wonder why Rick Wilson and the Lincoln Project hate our campaign.
I am a pro-Trump, pro-life and pro-gun conservative patriot who will fight the establishment in Washington.
The RINOs like Wilson are scared of an outsider like me. They should be. #alsen #alpolitics pic.twitter.com/CsdgpR9Ktj
— Mike Durant (@MikeDurantAL) May 12, 2022
1/ Mike:
Let’s be clear.
I didn’t send that card to you, not did I direct anyone else to, either.
I haven’t been in Seattle in over a year, that’s not my handwriting, and most importantly, I don’t have a single fuck to give about you and haven’t bothered to follow your race. https://t.co/82KpY90bk6
— Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) May 12, 2022
4/ But you know, I’m a generous and helpful guy behind my cruel and cutting exterior.
So, @MikeDurantAL, because of your play, I am officially giving you My Total And Complete Endorsement.
Now watch what the other campaigns do with that.
Good luck!
— Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) May 12, 2022