Rep. Todd Rokita has run ads portraying fellow Rep. Luke Messer, one of his two rivals in the May 8 GOP Senate primary, as a "never-Trump lobbyist" and as a guy who "plotted with the 'Never Trumpers' to steal the nomination from President Trump," so … you probably know exactly where this is going. The Associated Press's Brian Slodysko dug up a February 2016 interview where Rokita, who was supporting Marco Rubio in the presidential primary, told local WXIN TV, "When you see Marco contrasted with Donald Trump—I mean someone who is vulgar, if not profane."
Rokita, who barely two years later is running commercials featuring him wearing a MAGA hat, adds, "At some point you have to be presidential. People expect that and you see that in Marco Rubio," though he did add at the time that he would back Trump if he was the nominee. Rokita's team is still trying to salvage their original line-of-attack and insisting that, while Messer still criticized Trump after he won the nomination, Rokita was "the only Republican who steadfastly supported Donald Trump against Hillary Clinton."
And indeed, Messer did indeed tell CNN in June of 2016, after it was clear that Trump would be the GOP nominee, "I don't believe Donald Trump's a racist, but he has made race-baiting comments." There's no word what the third GOP Senate candidate, wealthy former state Rep. Mike Braun, thought about Trump at the time.
We'll see if this story has any legs in what's become a nasty primary to take on Democratic Sen. Joe Donnelly. Rokita and Messer are far from the only GOP politicians who began the 2016 cycle as Trump critics and morphed into Trump acolytes. Still, while all three candidates have made it clear that they back Trump, Rokita has hugged him the tightest, so he may have the most to lose if the base decides he's a phony or a hypocrite.