Ex-Michigan Gov. Jim Blanchard (D) — a longtime friend of Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Mich.) — revealed that her stunning endorsement of U.S. Senate nominee Mike Rogers ® occurred less than 48 hours after she told him over dinner that she planned to reiterate her support for Rogers’ opponent, Democrat Abdul El-Sayed.
In the lead-up to Sunday, the congresswoman — who is backed by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee — and her fiancé, Jason Turkish, ramped up their criticisms toward El-Sayed’s views on Israel, pressuring the progressive to denounce ads backing his bid that they called “hateful” and antisemitic.
Turkish — who is Jewish and has donated to AIPAC — had endorsed Rogers days before attending the dinner with Stevens on Friday.
Blanchard, speaking on Turkish’s behavior at the dinner, told Gongwer, “He was working her over.”
“The way he was saying it was, ‘Everyone is disappointed in you, they did everything they could to help you and then immediately after you lose the primary, you endorsed him,’” Blanchard said.
Emotionally, yes. Read the article. Her partner is Jewish and was basically telling her that she was being anti-Semitic for backing Sayed. You throw that kind of borderline abusive emotional manipulation on top of half her campaign funding coming from AIPAC and it’s not hard to see how this happened. No conspiracy required.
I mean ok, but she was running for major national office, maybe it shouldn’t be that fucking easy to manipulate her into saying and doing things that run contrary to her previously stated values.
That’s a major problem for a Senator to have, and it seems Michigan dodged a bullet. This is why primaries are so important.
Oh, for sure, no argument there. I’m not defending her character, she sucks, end of discussion. I’m just pointing out that no one needs to start coming up with weird-ass conspiracy theories to explain how this happened.
This makes a lot of sense. Especially given her bizarre interview with Anderson Cooper. He kept asking her the same question: what changed on the night before you endorsed the Republican? And she kept (ineptly) tap-dancing around the issue and fluctuating wildly between thanking Cooper for giving her air time and getting hostile about his question.
Her behavior and that interview shows all the hallmarks of someone who has jumped into or been pushed into a corner and doesn’t know how to get out.
Not that I pity her as it stands. This whole fiasco shows a remarkable lack of character and spine from her.
Jesus.
Can you imagine what she would’ve been like as a senator? The woman appears to have no foundation.
And her fiancé… this relationship sounds toxic. In all directions. His behavior and hers sound awful.
She’d fit right in unfortunately.
Partner or handler?
Yes.