Ex-Michigan Gov. Jim Blanchard (D) — a longtime friend of Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Mich.) — revealed that her stunning endorsement of U.S. Senate nominee Mike Rogers ® occurred less than 48 hours after she told him over dinner that she planned to reiterate her support for Rogers’ opponent, Democrat Abdul El-Sayed.

In the lead-up to Sunday, the congresswoman — who is backed by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee — and her fiancé, Jason Turkish, ramped up their criticisms toward El-Sayed’s views on Israel, pressuring the progressive to denounce ads backing his bid that they called “hateful” and antisemitic.

Turkish — who is Jewish and has donated to AIPAC — had endorsed Rogers days before attending the dinner with Stevens on Friday.

Blanchard, speaking on Turkish’s behavior at the dinner, told Gongwer, “He was working her over.”

“The way he was saying it was, ‘Everyone is disappointed in you, they did everything they could to help you and then immediately after you lose the primary, you endorsed him,’” Blanchard said.

  • melsaskca@lemmy.ca
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    2 hours ago

    With trump and netanyahu it’s all about the money, the violence and the blackmail. They don’t see a better day, they see a bigger throne.

  • phutatorius@lemmy.zip
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    6 hours ago

    And, now that the election is over, we have Senator Abdul Al-Sayed. Stevens’ betrayal accomplished nothing.

    • Mulligrubs@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      Why stop there? No donors. Zero. It’s all the same problem.

      You can’t (logically) reject AIPAC money while accepting luxury jets from Qatar.

      • Kirp123@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        Honestly if you want fair elections then you would need to set up an election fund and use it to give everyone the same sum of money for their campaign. Any other external contributions would be illegal. That way everyone, no matter who they are would be on equal footing.

        • Xerxos@lemmy.ml
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          1 day ago

          There are countries that do exactly this. It’s insane how much money is allowed to influence the US politicians.

        • crusa187@lemmy.ml
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          2 days ago

          This would be fine and could be done for a fraction of the current election spending. It’s absurd how much money is wasted on these dumbass campaign ads.

          A side benefit of this change would be that corpo media loses one of their primary revenue streams. They might have to start doing actual journalism again…!

    • bagsy@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      Politicians vote to send money to isreal, then isreal uses it to elect politicians that will send money to isreal. Its the circle of life.

  • HumanOnEarth@lemmy.ca
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    2 days ago

    Gee, $$$$$ I wonder $$$$$$ what could $$$$$$$$$$ have $$$$$$$$ happened $$$$$$$ to make her $$$$$$ change her $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ mind

    • Atelopus-zeteki@fedia.io
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      2 days ago

      We may never know. /s What’s amazing to me, at this time, is not the fact that politicians can be bought, or that Israel is throwing some $$ around, but rather how cheaply politicians are being bought by Israel / AIPAC. And I’m happy to see, on the link below, that MI-12 Representative Rashida Tlaib is the only one from MI that took ZERO $ from AIPAC.

      https://www.trackaipac.com/states/michigan

    • matlag@sh.itjust.works
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      2 days ago

      And no harsh reaction to that foreign interference yet? Because it feels like for Canadians, yawning at the wrong time would definitely be a major interference.

  • ChunkMcHorkle@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    Maybe something snapped, it’s possible, but that only ever works in one direction. “Snapping” suggests a period of pressure that the “snap” – or reversion to natural state – then resolves.

    If she genuinely snapped and in that “snap” she changed in character, that only means that this is who she was all along.

    For myself, I don’t believe even that much. This whole thing sounds like the beginnings of a plan to blame it all on the fiancé whenever she wants to reenter politics.

    • LotrOrc@lemmy.world
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      2 hours ago

      Why does everyone want to look for excuses for this ghoul?

      She either did exactly what her AIPAC overlords told her to do, or she has no spine.

    • Voroxpete@sh.itjust.works
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      2 days ago

      Emotionally, yes. Read the article. Her partner is Jewish and was basically telling her that she was being anti-Semitic for backing Sayed. You throw that kind of borderline abusive emotional manipulation on top of half her campaign funding coming from AIPAC and it’s not hard to see how this happened. No conspiracy required.

      • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        2 hours ago

        I mean ok, but she was running for major national office, maybe it shouldn’t be that fucking easy to manipulate her into saying and doing things that run contrary to her previously stated values.

        That’s a major problem for a Senator to have, and it seems Michigan dodged a bullet. This is why primaries are so important.

        • Voroxpete@sh.itjust.works
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          42 minutes ago

          Oh, for sure, no argument there. I’m not defending her character, she sucks, end of discussion. I’m just pointing out that no one needs to start coming up with weird-ass conspiracy theories to explain how this happened.

      • ThePowerOfGeek@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        This makes a lot of sense. Especially given her bizarre interview with Anderson Cooper. He kept asking her the same question: what changed on the night before you endorsed the Republican? And she kept (ineptly) tap-dancing around the issue and fluctuating wildly between thanking Cooper for giving her air time and getting hostile about his question.

        Her behavior and that interview shows all the hallmarks of someone who has jumped into or been pushed into a corner and doesn’t know how to get out.

        Not that I pity her as it stands. This whole fiasco shows a remarkable lack of character and spine from her.

        • andrewrgross@lemmy.today
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          2 days ago

          Jesus.

          Can you imagine what she would’ve been like as a senator? The woman appears to have no foundation.

          And her fiancé… this relationship sounds toxic. In all directions. His behavior and hers sound awful.