Morrisey, Capito feel positive about election chances following Trump rally

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Despite legal issues facing associates of President Donald Trump, West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey and U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., are confident Tuesday’s visit by the president will boost Morrisey’s poll numbers.

Trump covered an array of topics during his speech at the Charleston Civic Center, including the coal industry, the NFL, moving the American embassy in Israel to Jerusalem and why voters should vote Morrisey for the U.S. Senate.

“To continue this incredible success, we must elect more Republicans. We must elect Patrick Morrisey. We need him,” he said. “Get the people that love our country and get out the vote.”

Morrisey, who has lagged behind Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., in polls, said he expects a bump due to the presidential stop.

“I think people are seeing the battle lines drawn,” he said on MetroNews “Talkline.”

West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey

(Manchin) has had a lot of liberal positions. That’s out of step with West Virginia, and I think voters are going to see that. The president really helped frame that up last night.”

Morrisey said, noting the president’s use of the adjective, the impact of Trump’s visit will be “huge.”

“I think of all the state’s in the country, the president has more impact on West Virginia that virtually any other,” he said. “We feel really good about where we are in the campaign right now. I’ve taken it on the chin with all this nonsense advertising since May. They’ve outspent us thoroughly, but we’ll be coming up.”

Capito said on “Talkline” the visit emphasizes Morrisey’s reason for running.

“Patrick knows, and all of us know who run, it’s really on Patrick to run his race. With the president pushing along — and he says he’s coming back — I think it’s very helpful to Patrick,” she said.

The rally was overshadowed by breaking news involving people tied to Trump; a Virginia jury found former campaign manager Paul Manafort guilty on eight counts of tax evasion and bank fraud. Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, pleaded guilty to tax fraud, campaign finance violations and bank fraud.

Cohen also admitted he acted in coordination with a “candidate for federal office” to arrange payments to women keeping them from speaking about affairs with the president.

“I feel very badly for Paul Manafort and his wonderful family,” Trump tweeted. “‘Justice’ took a 12 year old tax case, among other things, applied tremendous pressure on him and, unlike Michael Cohen, he refused to ‘break’ – make up stories in order to get a ‘deal.’ Such respect for a brave man!”

White House spokesperson Sarah Sanders said Wednesday the president did nothing wrong when it comes to Cohen.

“There are no charges against him on this,” she said.

Morrisey said Cohen’s plea agreement seemed like an effort to “throw an old client under the bus.”

“I can tell you that I stand with President Trump strongly because he’s done so many good things for West Virginia,” he said. “I think it’s critical that people know that there’s no collusion and we haven’t seen anything that implicates the president of that, and this is a president that has taken on hits since day one of his presidency.”

U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va.

Capito was on Air Force One as the stories broke. She said it is never good when your personal lawyer is indicted.

“I think it’s important to know these things were uncovered in the decision to go forward to find whether or not there was Russian collusion,” she said. “None of this is related to Russian collusion, so everybody needs to separate this out from their own mind and keep that in the proper context.”

Capito said the president is taking Tuesday’s legal news seriously and she plans to continue to support the president’s policies.

“We’ll just have to see where it goes,” she added.

The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday people close to the White House described Trump as in a “rotten” mood when he returned to Washington, D.C. The news organization’s sources also said Trump was frustrated by the crowd at the Civic Center, which was described as flat.





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