Mark Brnovich, Arizona’s State Attorney General, is in some legal hot water with President Donald J. Trump, whose lawyers sent the Arizona Republican a ‘cease and desist’ letter this week to demand that Brnovich stop using Trump’s “name, image, and/or likeness” in his campaign fundraising appeals for US Senate.
The Washington Post reported on the scuttlebutt and offered their own propaganda about the move:
“Trump cracks down on deceptive fundraising by others using his name. While being known for his own false and misleading emails, Trump faces armies of unaffiliated fundraisers who ape his message and sometimes threaten Republicans in Trump’s name,” WaPo reported.
The author wrote that people ‘ape’ Trump’s message? Weirdos. I digress.
“Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich has spent months groundlessly telling Republicans that they can be on “Trump’s Team” or “Endorse Trump for President in 2024” by giving to his U.S. Senate campaign.”
“Are you turning your back on Pres. Trump?” one Brnovich fundraising ad asked last year. “Renew your 2022 membership before it is too late.”
“Such appeals pushed the actual team of advisers around Trump to a breaking point in June, after Trump endorsed Brnovich’s rival, Blake Masters, for the Senate seat in Arizona. In a cease-and-desist letter obtained by The Washington Post, an attorney for Save America, Trump’s political action committee, threatened legal action if Brnovich did not stop using Trump’s image and name in misleading ways,” WaPo reported.
And now Trump, through his lawyers, is pushing back and demanding the highly aggressive and annoying fundraising tactics stop, especially because Trump has endorsed someone else.
BREAKING: President Trump endorses Blake Masters in Arizona Senate GOP race. @bgmasters pic.twitter.com/PIomEGvsMN
— Garret Lewis (@GarretLewis) June 2, 2022
Trump’s endorsement letter read:
Statement on Arizona U.S. Senate Race by President Donald J. Trump
Attorney General Brnovich of Arizona was given massive information on the fraud and so-called “irregularities” that took place in the 2020 Presidential Election. Many people said that he would do nothing about it because that just seems to be the way he is. I felt differently because the numbers and sheer amount of crime committed is so compelling, irrefutable, and determinative—the election result would have been entirely different.
Well, he did a report, and he recites some of the many horrible things that happened in that very dark period of American history but, rather than go after the people that committed these election crimes, it looks like he is just going to “kick the can down the road” and stay in that middle path of non-controversy. He wants to be politically correct. Because of the amount of time that it took him to do the report, which was endless, his poll numbers have been rapidly sinking. Now, people are upset with the fact that while he states the problem, he seems to be doing nothing about it—he doesn’t give the answers.
What a shame for the Great State of Arizona, and for our Country itself! Because of this election, the USA is “going to hell” with Inflation, Russia attacking Ukraine, the loss of Energy Independence, 5-dollar gasoline, a wide-open Border, and, of course, the incompetence with which our pull-out from Afghanistan was handled. With an honest election, none of these things would have been a problem; they were all self-inflicted wounds. The good news is Arizona has some very good people running for election to the U.S. Senate. I will be making an Endorsement in the not too distant future!
The Daily Caller caught the battle as it is escalating between Bronvich and Trump:
“Trump endorsed tech executive Blake Masters in early June, but Brnovich has continued to use the former president’s photograph in fundraising pitches to supporters. Brnovich has raised more than $2.5 million throughout his campaign, Federal Election Commission records show, and has more than $500,000 on hand. (RELATED: Republican Senate Candidate Boasts Staggering $1.3 Million Fundraising Haul, Boosted By NFT Sales).”
Brnovich is an unlikely ally for Trump to be using the Trump name for fundraising because Brnovich was the attorney general announcement in the aftermath of the 2020 election and made public statements that he saw “no evidence, there are no facts that would lead anyone to believe that the election results will change.”
At the time, Trump described Brnovich as a “disappointment” and also claimed the same sentiment in his endorsement of Brnovich’s opponent and primary challenger, Masters.
Many Republican fundraisers use Trump’s picture and quotes in their fundraising requests, although the former president has sought to crack down on the use of his image.
Trump sent a cease-and-desist letter to the Republican National Committee in March 2021, claiming that the organization did not have permission to use his name, image and likeness for the purpose of fundraising. The RNC declined to stop, with an attorney noting that Trump is a public figure and that the organization may “refer to public figures as it engages in core, First Amendment-protected political speech.”
According to AZ Central, Brnovich is not doing well in the polls on his own:
“Trump’s endorsement of Blake Masters didn’t doom Mark Brnovich. He did that on his own”
Opinion: Mark Brnovich was probably the Republican Party’s best hope to knock off Sen. Mark Kelly. That is, until he was sabotaged both by Donald Trump and his own actions.
yeah, I get those E-mails as well.