Don Blankenship has been running in West Virginia’s Republican Senate primary as a Trump-like figure—and it may be working, with some polls showing him surging in the race’s final days. That has Republicans worried that their base will follow up nominating a child molester in Alabama with nominating a man responsible for 29 coal miner deaths in West Virginia. So, for all of Blankenship’s Trumpy posturing, Donald Trump is trying to help save Republican Senate hopes by warning voters away from him:
Blankenship was undeterred:
Blankenship responded to Trump later Monday morning, saying the President "doesn't know me and he doesn't know how flawed my two main opponents are in this primary."
In a lengthy statement, Blankenship said "the establishment is misinforming" Trump and vowed that he is capable of beating the state's vulnerable Democratic senator, Joe Manchin, in a general election.
"Tomorrow, West Virginia will send the swamp a message—no one, and I mean no one, will tell us how to vote. As some have said, I am Trumpier than Trump and this morning proves it," Blankenship concluded in his statement.
See, now that’s some true Trumpism: rejecting Trump’s own broadside against you as a sign that the swamp is winning, while using your rejection of Trump’s words to claim the mantle of Trumpier-than-Trumpism.