Rep. Evan Jenkins (R-WV), who is backed by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), falsely claimed on Monday that President Donald Trump endorsed him for the West Virginia Senate Republican primary.
President Donald Trump urged West Virginians to either vote for Rep. Jenkins or Attorney General Patrick Morrisey on Monday, contending that coal businessman Don Blankenship cannot defeat Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) in the general election.
Trump tweeted, “To the great people of West Virginia we have, together, a really great chance to keep making a big difference. 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!”
Jenkins took this tweet to mean that the president endorsed Jenkins for the West Virginia primary.
“Donald Trump this morning came out and supported my candidacy for the United States Senate,” Jenkins said in response to the tweet.
Asked whether the tweet was not an endorsement of either Jenkins or Morrisey, Jenkins responded, “He said vote for Evan Jenkins and I’ll leave it at that.”
This is not the first time that the Jenkins campaign has misrepresented the truth.
Fox News called out Jenkins’ campaign last week for releasing a campaign ad that featured a doctored photo of Morrisey with Hillary Clinton.
Fox New’s Peter Doocy called the photo “phony.” Morrisey called the ad, “despicable.”
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), who endorsed Morrisey in the primary, called out Jenkins in an exclusive interview with Breitbart News for lying about Morrisey’s relationship with President Donald Trump.
Sen. Paul said:
I think ultimately people do want some honesty and that’s one of the things they hate about politics. I ran against a guy who made up stuff and actually accused me of not having a religion. People, I think that if enough people get knowledge of the fact that he took a handshake with President Trump and photoshopped in Hillary Clinton, if that becomes known to enough people in West Virginia they’re going to say, ‘Oh my goodness, do I really want to vote for a guy who’s that dishonest?’
Morrisey chastised Rep. Jenkins regarding the photoshopped picture of him and Hillary Clinton.
Breitbart News also revealed in an exclusive report last month that Rep. Jenkins originally denied and then admitted to sending a letter urging lawmakers to support protection of an Obama-era Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) trucking regulation.
Morrisey continued, “I think it’s despicable. It’s lying in its worst form. Jenkin’s spokesperson says that it’s ‘creative license,’ ‘lying,’ that’s what we should call it. That’s been his whole campaign. It’s been one of deceit and I’ve been really disappointed in Evan Jenkins throughout this whole campaign.”