Haley Stevens' GOP Endorsement Was Personal, Not Political, Lis Smith Says | TMZ

Liz, I do not understand this except to say, I don't think she's saying what actually is going on. Yeah, I think you sort of hit the nail on the head there, Harvey, in your analysis that this is personal grievance masquerading as political principle. And I'm all for people taking principled stance and going with their conscience, right? But the time to do that was two months ago. When the primary ended or even before then to say, I can't support him for all these reasons. But instead, for the last two months, she has been a wholehearted endorser of his. And as you mentioned on TMZ Live, she talked about all the reasons why she was supporting him. So it is very hard not to see this as born of personal grievance rather than. Rather than conscience, just because someone is in politics or maybe because they are in politics, it doesn't mean they're a rational actor. And it's hard to see any other precipitating event here other than her being disinvited from the church service. Now, I'm not inside her head. I'm not talking with her. I'm not talking with her fiance. But if you look at her comments on CNN last night, she talked about a lack of kindness. She spoke to the free press today. And she said that. And that she felt excluded by AOC and Al-Sayed at times. And I think that's part of what's behind this. And let me just say this. Yes. Campaigns are really hard. They are really exhausting. And this primary was a very emotionally taxing primary for everyone involved. We're two days out from the election. And this is the time when people, you know, they get a little feral. And I think that... Some of the exhaustion here, some of the adrenaline is probably behind that. I agree that it's very possible that she disagreed with his positions and his statements on Israel. But the time to speak out about that would have been a couple of months ago. Two months before the election, not two days before the election, nothing in Abdul Al-Sayed's positioning or rhetoric materially changed between then and now. So I really do think, again, that this is born out of personal grievance. And another thing I would just say that I found sort of distasteful about the whole thing is and I've seen black leaders in Michigan call this out, is that she didn't just go out and endorse Mike Rogers. She went and she did it at. A black church. And why was she doing that? Was she having a conversation with them or was she using black voters more as a prop? And it certainly looked like the latter. Harvey, you and I both know this. People do crazy things for love. But I mean, my Lord, she just threw out her political career overnight and made this endorsement that I don't even think is going to make a difference in this race. 30 percent, I think 31 percent of registered Michigan voters have already cast a vote. They expect that's going to be around half of the total turnout. And I don't know that anyone was necessarily waiting on Haley Stevens last minute conversion here to make up their mind. And if anything, I could actually see this backfiring because it does look so opportunistic. A grievance, a little bit odd, frankly, and turns Abdul El-Sayed, who is. Made his whole campaign about running against this system, running against the establishment, running against the swamp. It turns him into a sympathetic figure and sort of underscores his message the whole time that there are all these people over here, Democrats, Republicans who are working against us and I'm here to fight against them, to be a fighter for you. And so I could actually see this working out to his benefit.