Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz claimed Georgia Sen. Kelly Loeffler tried to bribe President Trump with campaign donations to help her election odds in November.
Gaetz, a Republican, told the crowd at a recent campaign event in Cobb County, Georgia, that Loeffler offered to spend $50 million on Republican campaigns under the condition that Trump convince Rep. Doug Collins to drop out of the race for her seat.
“This is what the Loeffler team went to the Trump team with,” Gaetz said. “They went and said, ‘Look, you guys gotta get Doug Collins out of this race’ … She said, ‘I have $50 million for this project, and I can either spend my $50 million getting new voters and helping the Trump campaign, or I can spend that $50 million taking out Doug Collins.’”
Gaetz provided no evidence that such a conversation between Trump and Loeffler took place, according to a report from the Daily Beast. The Washington Examiner has reached out to Gaetz’s office for comment.
Loeffler’s campaign said Gaetz’s tale about the alleged bribe was a last-second attempt to distract from Collins’s weak performance in some recent polls.
“With 40 days left until Election Day, career politician Doug Collins is losing in every poll,” a spokeswoman for Loeffler’s campaign said. “His campaign is in free-fall and will say anything to distract voters and protect the congressman’s taxpayer-funded paycheck.”
One unidentified source told the Daily Beast that a message similar to the one shared by Gaetz was given to the president but that it was not Loeffler who made the comments. The source claimed Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told Trump that Loeffler and her husband, New York Stock Exchange Chairman Jeffrey Sprecher, would donate more to Republican races if Collins were not running.
“Basically, it was to get McConnell and the Senate committee behind Loeffler and to not support Collins,” the source said.
Trump has remained neutral in the race. Shortly after Collins announced his candidacy, Trump said he supports both Republicans and that he would make sure both candidates are taken care of following the election but that he hadn’t “figured it out yet.”
Loeffler and Sprecher have not donated anywhere near the $50 million that Gaetz suggested they would spend, according to Federal Election Commission records. Sprecher has donated $1 million to a PAC supporting Trump’s election, which is the largest donation he has made in the 2020 election. He has also made a six-figure contribution to Trump Victory, a PAC that is supporting Trump, the Republican National Committee, and House and Senate races. Loeffler has loaned her campaign $15 million.
