A Republican House member who jumped ship from Nikki Haley's suspended presidential campaign to support Donald Trump was put on the spot on CNN Thursday morning.
At issue were highly critical remarks Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC) made about the former president while serving as an attack dog for the Haley campaign.
Speaking with CNN host John Berman, Norman started out making his case for the need for Trump to beat President Joe Biden in November — then the CNN host put him on the spot by reading select criticisms of the former president.
According to Norman, despite the fact that he criticized Trump by name, his fury was actually aimed at Trump staffers and appointed officials he now claims let the former president down.
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Berman began applying pressure by pointing out to Norman, a longtime Haley ally, that Trump referred to his fellow South Carolina Republican as "birdbrain."
Asked about Trump insulting his friend, Norman replied, "Look, this is more than name-calling, this is more about hurt feelings. This is about saving a country. We've got to save America and so, if you hate to be called names and if your feelings get hurt, I would suggest you probably might not want to go into the political arena."
Changing direction, Berman then threw Norman's personal criticisms of Trump in his face.
"People do say things on the campaign trail, but people also in the line of business you're in make promises and say things that they either stand by or they don't stand by," Berman began.
"You said Donald Trump rubber-stamped massive increases in federal spending. You said 'Donald Trump likes to say he will drain the swamp. 'That was a winning message in 2016 when he was an outsider. Fast-forward, eight years and the outsider has become an insider.' You said when Trump left the White House, the D.C. swamp was alive and growing just like our country's federal debt, which grew by a stunning $8 trillion under Trump. Do you stand by all that?"
"Donald Trump will admit that the swamp, a lot of people that worked for him, that supposedly had allegiance to Donald Trump turned on him," the GOP lawmaker attempted. "That's the swamp."
"He will be far smarter when he gets elected about who he gets to work with him," he continued. "And, as far as the spending, he would agree, I mean, he came in at a tough time, but our financial crisis is the cancer in this country and I think you will see a different Donald Trump on the spending front."
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