Kathy Barnette Attacked Trump in 2016 GOP Primary: ‘Horrid,’ ‘Very Little Substance,’ ‘Moral Character is Questionable’

US President Donald Trump speaks during a retreat with Republican lawmakers at Camp David
AP Photo/Matt Rourke, SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images
Matthew Boyle
Washington, DC

Pennsylvania Republican U.S. Senate candidate Kathy Barnette was not always in favor of now former President Donald Trump.

In a series of tweets and other comments during the 2016 GOP presidential primary, Barnette — who was a fan of Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) — repeatedly ripped into Trump.

After a debate in September 2015, for instance, Barnette said Trump “was horrid.”

She also said in another September 26, 2015, tweet that Trump would be “good 4 beers & barbecue.”

“BUT, not as President,” Barnette said of Trump, adding that “WE r so morally bankrupt” for even considering Trump.

Barnette also that day, while Barack Obama was still the president, called Trump “JUST AS LIBERAL” as the “leaders we currently [have in] office.”

She also said in another tweet that while she likes Trump, “he’s nothing more than HEADLINES” and with Trump there is “very little substance.”

She said too that Trump’s “moral character is questionable” and that he is “braggadocious.”

When Dr. Ben Carson endorsed Trump in March 2016, Barnette tweeted that “there is a real disconnect, for me” in Carson endorsing Trump over Cruz.

As of the publication of this article, Barnette still has all these tweets published on her Twitter feed.

In her book, published in February 2020, Barnette even says Trump was last on her list of choices in the 2016 GOP primary — meaning that she liked former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, and former Ohio Gov. John Kasich more.

“In all honesty, I was not a Trumper initially,” Barnette wrote on page 33 of her book. “With the likes of former governor Mike Huckabee, neurosurgeon Ben Carson, and Senator Ted Cruz, there was no way on God’s green Earth I was intending to vote for the television and business mogul. We had just too many ‘good’ options to resort to voting for him. Out of sixteen presidential candidates, Donald Trump was number 16 on my preferred list.”

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