Republican strategist Karl Rove on Tuesday sought to counter claims that he’s been rallying for Vice President Harris in Pennsylvania, an allegation made in various viral posts on the social platform X.
The posts show a clip of the strategist speaking at the Rancho Mirage Writers Festival in California in February. In it, he attacks former President Trump for promising to pardon Jan. 6, 2021, rioters who breached the Capitol.
The specific post Rove responded to falsely captioned the video “Former Bush aid Karl Rove rallying for Kamala Harris in PA.”
“It’s amazing what people come up with and what they’ll fall for,” Rove wrote in a response on X. “I have not been in Pennsylvania since September when I gave a speech to folks in the healthcare industry.”
“I have not been rallying for Kamala Harris in Pennsylvania or anywhere else nor organizing any state for her,” added Rove, a frequent Trump critic.
In the clip of Rove’s remarks, made months before Harris entered the presidential race, he says Trump made a major mistake by siding with the Jan. 6 rioters.
“Look, I’m a Republican. I don’t want to have a Democrat president; I want to have a Republican president. But we’re facing, as a country, a decision — and you know what, everybody gets to make it — as to what kind of leadership we’re going to have,” he said.
“And to me, it is a mistake on the part of the Trump campaign to allow the president’s impulses to identify himself with the people who assaulted the Capitol rather than people who stand for law and order.”
Other posts using the clip claimed Rove has endorsed Harris. He has not.