Faced with mounting concerns from the Republican Party that former coal executive Don Blankenship could win a crucial U.S. Senate primary in West Virginia on Tuesday, President Trump tweeted that voters should stay away from the man who served a year in jail after being found culpable in the deaths of 29 miners during a 2010 explosion.
“To the great people of West Virginia we have, together, a really great chance to keep making a big difference,” Trump tweeted. “Problem is, Don Blankenship, currently running for Senate, can’t win the General Election in your State... No way! Remember Alabama. Vote Rep. Jenkins or A.G. Morrisey!”
The president of course was referencing when Judge Roy Moore won the Alabama Senate primary last year, only to lose in a historic upset to now-sitting Sen. Doug Jones (D-AL).
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Blankenship shrugged off the tweet in a statement to reporters, saying Trump “is a very busy man and he doesn’t know me and he doesn’t know how flawed my two main opponents are in this primary.”
“The establishment is misinforming him because they do not want me to be in the U.S. Senate and promote the president’s agenda,” Blankenship continued. “Tomorrow, West Virginia will send the swamp a message—no one, I mean no one, will tell us how to vote. As some have said, I am Trumpier than Trump and this morning proves it.”
