The host committee for an out-of-state fundraiser for the Morgan Ortagus for Congress campaign includes a former Trump administration State Department staffer who was fired for tweeting that President Trump was unfit for office, as well as several Never Trumpers.
Former Trump administration State Department spokesman and candidate for Tennessee’s 5th Congressional District Morgan Ortagus will be in Washington, D.C., on Ash Wednesday, March 2, 2022 to attend this fundraiser for her campaign.
Read the invitation to the event here:
Gabriel Noronha, a fired former State Department staffer who worked on Iran and member of the Ortagus’ fundraiser host committee, tweeted on January 6, 2021:
President Trump fomented an insurrectionist mob that attacked the Capitol today. He continues to take every opportunity to obstruct the peaceful transfer of power. These actions threaten our democracy and our Republic. Trump is entirely unfit to remain in office, and needs to go.
On January 7, 2021, CNN reported that Noronha was “notified that he would be fired in a letter from the State Department liaison to the White House.”
Senator Lindsey Graham and Congressman Dan Crenshaw are among the headliners for the event and are also on the host committee.
Another member of the host committee is a Never Trumper, former Lt. Governor of Massachusetts under then-Governor Mitt Romney, Kerry Healy. Healey is currently registered to vote as an Independent, didn’t vote for President Trump in 2016, and is pro-abortion.
The point of contact for the event, fundraiser Lisa Spies, a former staffer for Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign in 2012, has a history of badmouthing President Trump and was a Never Trumper in 2016.
The Dallas Morning News quoted Spies in 2016, where she said, “There are so many groups he’s alienated, but as far as women, it’s not just that he halted our progress, it’s that he reversed it.”
Spies also said, “Trump is not only going to lose the women’s vote, he’ll lose the Republican women vote.” President Trump defeated Hillary Clinton in 2016.
The Tennessee Star previously reported that Ortagus herself had a history of bashing President Trump.
Morgan Ortagus once expressed on MSNBC that she was unsure if she would vote for him if he were to become the Republican nominee. She was working for a super PAC that supported Jeb Bush’s 2016 campaign at the time.
During a January 2016 interview on Alan Colmes’ radio show, Ortagus lambasted the former president, saying, “You have somebody who makes fun of people with mental and physical disabilities. That’s disgusting; there’s no other way around it.”
She also said during the interview, “Quite frankly, I don’t want someone with the temperament of a middle school pubescent boy in the president’s office.”
In a March 2016 op-ed written for Fox Business, she wrote, “People know Trump isn’t serious.”
During an April 2016 appearance on Fox Business, Morgan Ortagus said of foreign policy approach, “I don’t see it that way. I think that America is the glue that holds the world together. … So there were points that I agreed [on] with him today, but overall, I fundamentally disagree with his isolationist approach to foreign policy.”
Ortagus’ previous comments about President Trump appear to be water under the bridge, given that he has given her his strong endorsement for TN-5.
Ortagus is a known commodity in Washington, D.C. having worked in the Trump administration State Department, among other positions she held. Ortagus worked and lived there for several years, and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg even officiated at her wedding.
Other candidates that are publicly running in Tennessee’s 5th Congressional District Republican primary are music video director Robby Starbuck, businessman Baxter Lee, former Brig. Gen. Kurt Winstead, and Natisha Brooks. Several others are collecting qualifying petitions.
Former Tennessee Speaker of the House Beth Harwell and Maury County Mayor Andy Ogles are also considering entry into the GOP field.
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Aaron Gulbransen is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Morgan Ortagus” by U.S. Embassy and Consulates in Canada.
