Mitch Perry
South Carolina U.S. Rep. Trey Gowdy didn’t attend a fundraiser for Marco Rubio at the home of Harlan Crow and wife, Kathy, in Highland Park, Texas, Tuesday night.
Gowdy, best known as being chairman of the Special Select Committee on Benghazi, said in the spring that he wouldn’t be using his committee to raise money because he said some things should transcend politics. “I will cite myself as an example,” he said. “I have never sought to raise a single penny on the backs of four murdered Americans.”
Florida Politics reported on Tuesday afternoon that Gowdy had canceled his appearance the same day. In fact, he informed the Rubio campaign “a couple of weeks ago” that he wouldn’t be able to attend the event because of a scheduling conflict, according to Rubio campaign spokesman Alex Conant.
“He regrets that he was not able to attend,” Conant emailed FP.
Correct the Record, the David Brock-led research and rapid response team designed to defend Hillary Clinton, issued a statement earlier on Tuesday noting Gowdy’s scheduled fundraising appearances Tuesday night and in Volusia County next month. That’s where Gowdy is scheduled to deliver the keynote address for the Volusia County Republican Party at its Lincoln Day dinner on Nov. 8.
“Cancelling one event is not enough – Gowdy should withdraw from all fundraising where he uses the deaths of four Americans to raise money for the Republican Party and apologize for his abuse of his position – otherwise he must terminate his taxpayer-funded investigation because it is simply a campaign tool of the GOP,” said Adrienne Watson of Correct The Record.
The Rubio fundraiser already was in the news Tuesday, after Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz issued a statement calling on the Florida senator to cancel the event because it’s at the home of Crow, a real estate investor who has collected art from Adolf Hitler and also owns a signed copy of Mein Kampf.
“Holding an event in a house featuring the artwork and signed autobiography of a man who dedicated his life to extinguishing the Jewish people is the height of insensitivity and indifference,” said Wasserman Schultz, as reported by POLITICO. “There’s really no excuse for such a gross act of disrespect. Mr. Rubio, who by the way, represents a sizable Jewish population in our home state of Florida, should cancel this tasteless fundraiser.”
