Former President Donald Trump, who is not exactly known for his restraint, let a room full of House Republicans know his thoughts on the RNC’s host city on Thursday.
According to Punchbowl News, Trump told the group that “Milwaukee, where we are having our convention, is a horrible city.”
Trump spokesperson and former Trump administration official Steven Cheung called Punchbowl’s reporting “total bullshit” in an X post. “He never said it like how it’s been falsely characterized as. He was talking about how terrible crime and voter fraud are,” he said.
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On Fox News, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said he “didn’t hear it and I was sitting right next to him.”
Wisconsin lawmakers who were in the room all told vastly different stories: Evidently they did not get the same memo.
Rep. Glenn Grothman (R-WI) and Rep. Scott Fitzgerald (R-WI) corroborated that Trump was referring to the election integrity and crime rate in Milwaukee, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Rep. Bryan Steil (R-WI), meanwhile, claimed Trump didn’t make the comment at all.
However, Steil fell in line with the rest of his colleagues later in the day, changing his story on a WISN 12 News appearance.
“He wasn’t talking about the city. He was talking about specific issues in the city,” Steil said.
Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-WI) had his own story too, claiming that Trump was referring to “the CRIME RATE in Milwaukee.” Rep. Tom Tiffany (R-WI) disputed Van Orden, telling the Journal Sentinel, “I think he kind of lumps all those things together, that there were some real improprieties [with the election] in Wisconsin, and cites Milwaukee as a result of it.”
Milwaukee’s Democratic Mayor Cavalier Johnson did not hold back, pointing out that there are nearly 50,000 registered Republicans in Milwaukee.
“You are calling their home ‘horrible,’” Johnson told reporters Thursday afternoon. “If Donald Trump wants to talk about things that he thinks are horrible, all of us lived through his presidency, so right back at ya, buddy.”
President Joe Biden even got in on the fun, posting to his X account a picture of him with a “Biden” Milwaukee Buck’s Jersey alongside the team from earlier this year, captioned “I happen to love Milwaukee.”
Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) also jeered Trump, writing an X post: “Milwaukee makes the greatest beer, brats, and motorcycles in the world. It’s home to some of our most vibrant communities, hardest workers, and is a part of what makes Wisconsin the best state in the nation. Donald Trump wouldn’t understand even if a jury told him so.”
Read it at Milwaukee Sentinel Journal
