Sometimes Trump Supporter Eric Toney Doubles Back
MADISON, Wis. – In a new interview with the Associated Press, Eric Toney refused to commit to supporting Trump should he run in 2024, muddling the narrative on his political support for the former president.
Throughout his primary campaign, Eric Toney tied himself in knots attempting to play both sides of the aisle, touting himself to GOP voters as a Trump supporter, only to immediately dodge questions from the press about who he voted for.
In a May interview with right-wing radio host Dan O’Donnell, Toney aggressively defended his support for Trump before attempting to explain why he had been unable to answer questions from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel about who he voted for in 2016 and 2020 without first talking to his campaign consultant:
- DAN O’DONNELL: [03:51] Why didn’t you just tell Bice, no, it’s a lie. I did vote for Trump in both 2016 and 2020. I don’t know where they got the idea that I didn’t.
- ERIC TONEY: One of the things that I made a conscious effort to do in this campaign is focus on the issues that are key to the Attorney General’s office and winning in November. And so that was what our focus has been in this race. And so what I wanted to do is decide, are we going to make this a broader issue and put my voting history into the public? And so that would be a strategic change that we would have made in the campaign. So whenever I make a strategic shift in the campaign, I think like just about every candidate, we talk to our campaign team.
- DAN O’DONNELL: Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on, hold on, hold on. How’s that a strategic shift? Someone asked you, okay, did you vote for Trump? I would say I understand political strategies. Yeah, I voted for Trump. I don’t know what these people are talking about. Like, you didn’t say that though. You had to huddle with your campaign team. You can see how that would give the impression, okay, oh, shoot. We’ve got this coming out. We better figure out a way to gameplan this.
“It’s clear Wisconsinites can’t trust Eric Toney—he has never been upfront about his support for Donald Trump, and he’s reversing himself once again now that it’s politically convenient,” said Democratic Party of Wisconsin spokesperson Marnie O’Malley. “It was clear throughout his primary campaign that Eric Toney would say or do anything to win, and things are no different today. Working families deserve an Attorney General focused on the issues that matter, and unlike Eric Toney, Attorney General Josh Kaul will always tell Wisconsinites what he thinks and where he stands.”
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