Former President Donald Trump spoke on Wednesday night to four potential and likely Republican Party candidates running to fill the vacancy for retired Sen. Rob Portman, Fox News confirmed.
The session turned into an intense meeting that a spectator compared to the “Hunger Games”, according to a report.
The meeting took place during a fundraiser for former employee Max Miller, which Trump recently endorsed in his candidacy to oust Representative Anthony Gonzalez of Ohio in the 2020 midterm elections. Gonzalez was one of 10 House Republicans who voted for Trump’s impeachment for his role in the January 6 riot on Capitol Hill.
Trump called on the four candidates – former Ohio Republican Party president Jane Timken, former state treasurer Josh Mandel, technology executive Bernie Moreno and investment banker Mike Gibbons – to meet with him before the dinner fundraising, Politico said, citing sources familiar with the event. They would have been taken aback by the request for a meeting.
Representatives of Trump and the Ohio Republican Party did not immediately return a request for comment on the meeting.
Potential customers took the opportunity to disclose their credentials in an attempt to secure Trump’s endorsement.
Timken talked about his work assisting Trump’s reelection in Ohio before the 2020 presidential election. Mandel said he was ahead of Timken in the first polls – an accusation she denied. Timken and Mandel are the only two of the four candidates to have entered the race.
Trump said that Timken initially expressed support for Gonzalez, prompting her to note that she ended up asking him to resign because of his impeachment vote.
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The former president repeatedly made negative references to Gonzalez during the meeting. Trump also questioned whether Ohio Governor Mike DeWine, who publicly recognized Joe Biden as president-elect during Trump’s long challenge to election results, was vulnerable to a primary.
Portman has already announced that he will not run for re-election in 2022. He is part of a small group of Senate Republicans who have directly engaged in negotiations with Biden over bipartisan legislation.
Trump has been speaking openly since he left the White House. He pledged to play an active role in the 2022 mid-term elections, supporting candidates who uphold his “America first” agenda.
Paul Steinhauser of Fox News contributed to this report