Green Bay, Wis. (AP) – Donald Trump Former NFL star Brett Favre was praised at a rally Wednesday in Green Bay, Wisconsin, where the former Packers quarterback campaigned for the Republican presidential nominee in the final week. election Day,
“Thanks, Brett. What a great honour. “What a great champion,” Trump said shortly after taking the stage at the Resch Center. Describing Favre's fingers as “like sausages,” he added, “No wonder he can throw the ball.”
“I'm a little upset because I think he got more applause than me, and I'm not happy,” the former president said, mocking the ovation Favre received in the county that Trump won by a narrow margin in 2020.
After this Trump appeared on the stage in an orange safety jacket ride in a garbage truck To draw attention to an offensive comment by President Joe Biden. But he reignited a separate controversy by revisiting his promise to “protect the women of our country”.
After complaining about his own staff telling him it was “inappropriate”, Trump insisted, “Whether women like it or not, I'll do it.”
Trump rallied with Favre in the key battleground state just six days before the election. In a sign of the state's importance, Trump's Democratic rival, Vice President kamala harriswere campaigning together in heavily Democratic-voting Madison, about a 2 1/2-hour drive away.
Favre, who won three NFL Most Valuable Player awards and a Super Bowl for Green Bay in the 1990s, praised Trump before the former president's arrival and told the crowd, “Like the Packer organization, Donald Trump and his The organization was the winner.”
“The United States won because of his leadership,” Favre said.
By relying on Favre, Trump is taking advantage of the state's deep and loyal support for the Packers and the team's one-time star quarterback. But Favre's burden has increased after he became embroiled in Mississippi's welfare spending scandal.
Favre, 55, is not facing any criminal charges, but he is among more than three dozen people or groups being prosecuted as the state seeks to recover misspent money. Is trying. Favre has repaid more than $1 million he received in speaking fees funded by the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program. Mississippi Auditor Shad White, a Republican, said Favre never came to the speaking event. White also said Favre is still owed About $730,000 in interest.
Mississippi has ranked among the poorest states for decades, but only a share of its federal welfare money Going to the families. Instead, according to White and state and federal prosecutors, the Mississippi Department of Human Services allowed well-connected people to waste millions of welfare dollars from 2016 to 2019.
A nonprofit group called the Mississippi Community Education Center made two payments of welfare money to the athlete's business Favor Enterprises: $500,000 in December 2017 and $600,000 in June 2018. TANF money was to go toward a volleyball field At the University of Southern Mississippi. Favre agreed to lead fundraising efforts for the facility at his alma mater, where his daughter began playing on the volleyball team in 2017.
Nancy New, director of the Mississippi Community Education Center, pleaded guilty to charges in April 2022 misspending welfare moneyAs did his son, Zachary New, who helps run the nonprofit. They are awaiting sentencing and have agreed to testify against the others.
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Favre appeared in September The investigation was before a Republican-led congressional committee into how states are falling short in using welfare to help needy families. US House Republican Said that the Mississippi welfare misspending scandal involving Favre and others points to the need for “serious reforms” to the TANF program.
Favre told the congressional committee that he was been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease In January.
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Wagster Pettus reported from Jackson, Mississippi. Beaumont reported from Des Moines, Iowa.