‘I’m the MAGA candidate in this race,’ Greitens told Fox News
Former Missouri Governor Eric Greitens is stepping back into politics after announcing last week that he plans to run for Senate in Missouri to replace the retiring Senator Roy Blunt.
Greitens was last involved in politics when he resigned from office after multiple scandals taking place. The scandals were campaign finance and sexual assault allegations.
Greitens admitted to having an affair but denied the sexual assault allegations, and the campaign finance allegations.
Years following the assault charges against Greitens were dropped and there was no evidence that Greitens knew about reporting issues from his campaign, which are now settled.
Now the former governor and current Senate candidate is looking to for a fresh start to his political career during the year 2022.
“The good news is that eventually that big wave of leftist lies, it just crashes on the rock of the facts. And the fact is that we’ve been exonerated,” Greitens stated. “I know from my time as a boxer that you can lose a round but eventually win the fight. I know from my time as a Navy SEAL that you can lose a battle and eventually win the war.”
The next move for Greitens political career will be for Blunt’s Senate seat, who is retiring.
Missouri Republicans who already are in the campaign or may possibly join it are Attorney General Eric Schmitt, Rep. Ann Wagner, R-Mo., Rep. Jason Smith, R-Mo., and Rep. Vicky Hartzler, R-Mo.
Schmitt is the only one besides Greitens who is considered officially in. He has already faced what may be a common line of attack against the former governor during the campaign – that he is damaged goods and could fall to a Democrat in the general election. Schmitt stressed in a statement that he is the right person to “fight to preserve President Trump’s America First agenda and keep this seat in safe pro-Trump Republican hands.”
Greitens has been endorsed by former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, former Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke and commentator Sebastian Gorka.
“I want to defend President Trump’s America first policies,” Greitens told Fox News. “And I want to protect the people of Missouri from the kind of lunatic policies… that have been pushed by Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer.”
He added: “I’m the MAGA candidate in this race. I’m the front-runner who has the support of so many folks like Rudy Giuliani, like Seb Gorka, like Ryan Zinke, like Victoria Toensing and Joe diGenova, because I’ve been there through the fights and I’m a fighter and I’m going to fight for the people of Missouri in the U.S. Senate.”
Greitens told Fox News that if he is elected, he will pick up where he left off as governor– as a strong supporter of law enforcement.
“As governor, I was always on the front lines supporting our police officers and doing it when it was hard,” Greitens said. “I think in the same way the people of Missouri need a senator who’s willing to go to the front lines, who’s not afraid to stand up for them when things are hard.”
“If you look right now at the border crisis that Joe Biden has created, we need to have leaders who are willing to go to the front lines and be there on behalf of and with all of our law enforcement agents on the border who Biden has set up for failure,” he continued. “Biden has created a national security crisis. It is a public safety crisis. It is a public health crisis. It is bad for economics.”
Greitens brought up his past international charity work, saying that “what Biden has done has created a massive humanitarian crisis that is hurting some of the most vulnerable children in the world.”
“It’s important that the people know that we carry them in our heart every single day… This border crisis also just exposes the heartlessness of the left,” Greitens said. “Keeping kids with learning disabilities out of school for a year is heartless. Allowing murders and violence to explode in our cities is heartless. The consequences of leftist policies have real human consequences. And I think it’s important to lead from the front lines with both strength and compassion.”
Greitens says he is committed to working toward a balanced budget, protecting the Second Amendment, that he’s pro-life and supports “President Trump’s peace through strength foreign policy.”
Missouri elected a Democratic senator as recently as 2012.
That was former Sen. Claire McCaskill, who only lost to Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., by about six percentage points in 2018. Her 2012 win over Republican Todd Akin came after Akin’s campaign was troubled with errors. Conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt said that there is possibility that Greitens’ candidacy may be repeat of that race.
Greitens in his interview with Fox News said he is very confident that Missourians will support him based on his policies and his support for Trump.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.