May 10, 2021
Rhode Island Dan McKee has cancelled a campaign fundraiser after learning that one of the co-hosts is a supporter of former President Donald Trump.
In a statement release Sunday McKee said, “Once I became aware on Friday afternoon of the details of a fundraising event set for next Wednesday, I asked that the event be cancelled. I do not want to be associated with Donald Trump in any way, shape, or form. I do not like Trump…he is dishonest, divisive, and his “Big Lie” is a threat to our democracy. There is no place for a Trump spokesperson to co-host any event I am involved in.”
Published May 10. 2021 2:01AM
PROVIDENCE (AP) Democratic Gov. Dan McKee said Sunday he has canceled a fundraising event that was being organized on his behalf by a prominent supporter of former President Donald Trump.
McKee had been scheduled to attend a May 12 event co-hosted by Gerald Zarrella, a Republican who was co-chairman of Trump’s Rhode Island re-election campaign. But when the Democrat learned who was behind the fundraiser, he said he asked to call it off.
“I do not want to be associated with Donald Trump in any way, shape, or form. I do not like Trump,” McKee said in a statement released Sunday. “He is dishonest, divisive, and his ‘Big Lie’ is a threat to our democracy.”
RI Gov. Cancels Fundraiser Being Co-hosted by Trump Backer “I do not want to be associated with Donald Trump in any way, shape, or form. I do not like Trump,” Rhode Island Gov. Dan McKee said in a statement.
Published May 10, 2021 •
Updated on May 10, 2021 at 11:27 am
Office of Lt. Gov. McKee
Rhode Island Gov. Dan McKee said Sunday he has canceled a fundraising event that was being organized on his behalf by a prominent supporter of former President Donald Trump.
The Democratic governor had been scheduled to attend a May 12 event co-hosted by Gerald Zarrella, a Republican who was co-chair of Trump’s Rhode Island re-election campaign. But when the Democrat learned who was behind the fundraiser, he said he asked to call it off.
What a spokesman for Democrat McKee actually said this past weekend was this: I do not want to be associated with Donald Trump in any way, shape, or form. I do not like Trump. … He is dishonest, divisive, and his Big Lie is a threat to our democracy. There is no place for a Trump spokesperson to co-host any event I am involved in.
What the Rhode Island GOP heard was McKee s version of a line in a 2016 campaign speech by presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton.
“You know, to just be grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trump’s supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables. Right?” Clinton said then. “The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic you name it. And unfortunately there are people like that. And he has lifted them up.