Intra-GOP Squabbling Dominates Senate Speeches at Neshoba Fair
PHILADELPHIA, Miss.—"Tough crowd," Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant muttered to himself, just before taking the stage at the Neshoba County Fair in Philadelphia, Miss., on Thursday.
He had just watched the state's two incumbent U.S. Senators—Republicans Cindy Hyde-Smith and Roger Wicker—speak before a hostile, jeering crowd that included dozens of supporters for conservative State Sen. Chris McDaniel, who is running to unseat Hyde-Smith in November's elections.
"I'm darn glad to say I appointed a United States senator that's a rancher and not a lawyer, and she's doing one hell of a job," Bryant said during his speech, defending his appointment of Hyde-Smith, while prodding McDaniel, who has a law practice in Laurel.
Twenty minutes earlier, boos and heckling had overwhelmed Hyde-Smith's speech, lasting for the duration of her time on stage. "Gun grabber," one shouted when she spoke of her NRA membership. "You support Planned Parenthood," another shouted when she spoke of her opposition to abortion. When she praised her predecessor, Cochran, for having done "so many favors for us over the years," they laughed.
Read more: http://www.jacksonfreepress.com/news/2018/aug/03/inter-gop-squabbling-dominates-senate-speeches-nes/