Former Rep. J.D. Hayworth (R-AZ), who was hoping to harness Tea Party anger in his Republican primary challenge against Sen. John McCain, has just earned himself the complete ire and contempt of one the Tea Party kings — Glenn Beck himself. On his radio show today, Beck positively ripped Hayworth for his appearance in a 2007 informercial promoting a company’s questionable seminars promoting “free money” in government grants.
“I believe we can announce on this program that J.D. Hayworth’s campaign is over,” Beck said, in a clip that has been distributed to the press by the McCain campaign. It should be noted that Beck is not even remotely a fan of McCain, either, but he now thoroughly rejects Hayworth as an infomercial pitchman who urged people to seek out money from the government. And to top it off, Beck and his radio show crew did mocking impersonations of Hayworth and various notable infomercial fly-by-nighters.
When contacted by TPMDC, the Hayworth campaign declined to comment. The TPM Poll Average gives McCain a lead in the Republican primary of 51.2%-37.1%. The primary will be held on August 24.
Eric Kleefeld
Eric Kleefeld joined TPM as an intern for the final months of the 2006 midterm elections, and then kept showing up for work. His other interests include guitars, old comic books and the politics of various English-speaking countries.
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