With just over three weeks to go until Virginia Republicans slouch towards the polls to select the candidate – Corey Stewart, Nick Freitas or Ewwww Jackson – who will have the honor of getting slaughtered by Sen. Tim Kaine this November, tempers are clearly getting short, particularly between neo-Confederate Corey and Freaky Freitas, as I call them.
Check out the following interview Freitas did this morning on the John Fredericks Show, and you’ll hear what I’m talking about. Here are a few highlights from the discussion – starting about three minutes in – about Corey Stewart and the Virginia GOP U.S. Senate primary to be held on June 12 (bolding added by me for emphasis).
- To begin with, Freitas is clearly irritated by the continued assertions that Corey is the frontrunner. According to Freitas, “the idea that we don’t have a base is inaccurate…how did we out-fundraise Corey Stewart, and not by a small margin?…We’ve won every single straw poll that’s been done all across the Commonwealth, by double digits…We do have a base.” OK, we get it Nick, you think you’ve got a base. I guess we’ll all see in 22 days.
- Freitas said he has “really tried to resist” attacking Corey Stewart in this campaign, but that Corey “has just relentlessly come after me, and he’s come after me over the stupidest of things. I mean, he’s mocked the ethnicity of my last name. He’s mischaracterized my voting record. He’s flat-out lied about whether or not I voted for Donald Trump. So I’m tired of it.”
- I particularly loved this mini-tirade from Freitas: “Let’s face it, the last time Corey Stewart went to DC peddling conspiracy theories, Donald Trump fired him…he’s made this huge deal about how he’s the Trump guy and how he led Trump’s campaign in Virginia. Go talk to any senior adviser that was working for Donald Trump at the time and ask them what they think about what Corey Stewart did for Donald Trump’s chances in Virginia. Because the whole reason why he was fired was not just because he went up there and made a protest in Washington DC, it was because Corey Stewart was constantly putting his own political ambitions ahead of what the president needed from him in Virginia. And so for him to be able to to go and campaign on this idea like he’s Trump’s guy is absolutely ridiculous and the facts bear that out.” What’s funny is that Steve Bannon told the Washington Post this past November that “I think the reason [Trump] didn’t win Virginia is that we fired Corey — otherwise, we would have been more competitive…I was a Corey Stewart fan at the time, but I had to keep peace in the valley.” So who’s right here: a) Nick Freitas; b) Corey Stewart and Steve Bannon? I’d love to see Freitas and Stewart debate that one the next time they’re up on stage together. LOL
- But wait, Nick’s not done: “Corey loves to brag about how he’s the only one that can win Northern Virginia, he’s the only one that has won in Prince William County, how he’s got a lock on Prince William County. Well then here’s my question; instead of going up and doing fake protests in Washington DC, why wasn’t he working in Prince William County, which Hillary Clinton ended up carrying by 21 points, because if we could have gotten a couple more percentage points out of Prince William, it would have made a huge difference across the Commonwealth.” Exactly. And then Democrats wiped out Republicans in PW County in November 2017. Great job by PW County Board Chair Corey Stewart, huh? LOL
- Nick then attacks Corey for raising taxes in PW County and “misrepresented his record.”
- Last but definitely not least, Nick rips Corey as a “cheap imitation of [Donald Trump] in Virginia,” adding that “when we’re attacking women and children [which Corey has done repeatedly], that’s not something that resonates with people, and you know what, it shouldn’t resonate with people…Corey likes to talk about running the most vicious and ruthless campaign we’ve ever run in Virginia. I like to ask people; think back in the pantheon of American political figures about the ones you admire, which ones would you describe as ruthless and vicious?”
Bottom line: with 22 days to go, it’s clear that Corey Stewart and Nick Freitas hate each other’s guts, that Corey is REALLY getting under Nick’s skin, and that it’s going to be hilarious watching this fractured party try to come back together after June 12 – whichever wacko extremist they nominate!
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