Republican congressman Rep. Tom Rice (S.C.) slammed Donald Trump, calling him a “would-be tyrant” after the former president attacked him at a rally in Florence, South Carolina on Saturday night.
Rice was one of ten House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump for inciting an insurrection at the Capitol on Jan. 6. The South Carolina GOP swiftly censured him for his vote, and a crowded field of challengers lined up to defeat him.
Trump endorsed South Carolina state Rep. Russell Fry to challenge Rice in the GOP primary for the state’s 7th district.
At the rally on Saturday, Trump called Rice a “disaster” and “total fool” for voting to impeach him and Fry said it was time for Rice to go.
Rice fired back in a statement after the rally calling Trump a “would-be tyrant” and said Fry is a “yes man candidate” who supports “political violence.”
“Trump is here because, like no one else I’ve ever met, he is consumed by spite,” Rice said in a statement according to local CBS affiliate WBTW. “I took one vote he didn’t like and now he’s chosen to support a yes man candidate who has and will bow to anything he says, no matter what.”
“If you want a Congressman who supports political violence in Ukraine or in the United States Capitol, who supports party over country, who supports a would-be tyrant over the Constitution, and who makes decisions based solely on re-election, then Russell Fry is your candidate,” he continued. “If you want a Congressman who cowers to no man, who votes for what is right, even when it’s hard, and who has fought like hell for the Grand Strand and Pee Dee, then I hope to earn your vote.”
Trump won Rice’s district in 2020 by 18 points. The congressman won re-election by 24 points that same year.
