Last week, former U.S. Rep. Parker Griffith (D) claimed Senate candidate Mike Durant was making poor campaign decisions because he’s suffering from PTSD.
Many critics have come out blasting those comments, including former Senate candidate Jessica Taylor.
Taylor, who left the Senate race and endorsed Mike Durant, said on Twitter, “Parker Griffith owes every combat veteran an apology and the silence from [Katie Britt] about what her democrat surrogate said is deafening.”
Parker Griffith owes every combat veteran an apology, and the silence from @KatieBrittforAL about what her democrat surrogate said is deafening. #alpolitics https://t.co/JydEfc5MEG
— Jessica Taylor (@JessicaTaylorAL) April 8, 2022
Thursday on WVNN’s “The Yaffee Program,” Taylor doubled down on her criticism of the remarks and called on Senate candidate Katie Britt to publicly denounce Griffith’s PTSD comments about Durant.
“[F]or Katie to not comment on it just adds insult to injury,” she argued. “She should have just easily made a comment disavowing his words because they are that egregious.”
Britt did respond to Griffith’s comments on Wednesday, saying, “[H]e is not affiliated at all with my campaign and one of the things I have been so proud of is my stance for veterans, my stance with standing with veterans since day one.”
Taylor said she was not satisfied with Britt’s response.
“Absolutely not,” she said. “If he’s not affiliated with her campaign, why can’t she disavow those comments? I mean, we’ve got sitting U.S. Senators who have commented on this and this is truly an attack on combat veterans and the mental health community. If she cares about those issues, denounce those comments.”
The former Senate candidate said that Griffith had been out speaking publicly about his support for Britt.
“To say he’s not affiliated with her campaign,” she continued, “he’s donated to her campaign, they certainly accepted a donation from a Democrat. He goes on radio shows defending her. He publicly endorsed her, has her sign in his yard, so it really shouldn’t be an issue for her to distant herself from these comments and the fact that she won’t is just very telling to me.”
Taylor also reacted to Britt recently saying Durant’s take on the Second Amendment was “disgusting and dangerous.”
“This is just a desperate attempt for them to try to reverse Mike’s upward momentum in these polls,” she protested. “Those comments were taken out of context. When Mike said the comments in question he was speaking to the Army War College, specifically discussing military tactics and how you would disarm a community, so they’re trying to paint it as if he’s anti-[Second Amendment] and nothing could be further from the truth.”
She reiterated why she decided to endorse Durant in this Senate race.
“I’ve enjoyed getting to know him,” she explained, “and it was an easy decision for me to drop out and support him once I got to know him and saw not just what he said he’ll do but what he has done, and he’s not a career politician. He’s an outsider, he’s got new ideas, and he’s got the backbone to get it done.”
Yaffee is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts “The Yaffee Program” Weekdays 9-11am on WVNN. You can follow him on Twitter @Yaffee
