Twitter Afire After Trump Camp Breaks With Lawyer: Lasted 'About Half A Scaramucci'
Twitter critics went into overdrive on Sunday after the Trump campaign distanced itself from lawyer and conspiracy theorist Sidney Powell, just days after she appeared front and center at a press conference hosted by President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani and his campaign’s legal team.
“Sidney Powell is practicing law on her own,” Giuliani and campaign lawyer Jenna Ellis said in a statement. “She is not a member of the Trump Legal Team. She is also not a lawyer for the President in his personal capacity.”
Yet just eight days ago, Trump tweeted that Ellis, Powell and two others made up a “truly great team” spearheaded by Giuliani to “defend OUR RIGHT to FREE and FAIR ELECTIONS!”
Ellis has also said Powell is a member of the team.
Powell told CBS in a statement that she understands the Trump campaign’s press release and will “continue to represent #WeThePeople who had their votes for Trump and other Republicans stolen by massive voter fraud.”
The move comes after Powell, a regular pundit on the conservative news circuit, spouted a string of particularly outrageous election conspiracy theories. On Saturday, she went on the right-wing cable channel Newsmax and accused Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp ― a Republican and staunch Trump ally ― of being in on electoral crimes that led to the president’s loss, and threatened a lawsuit of “biblical” proportions.
In a Thursday press conference led by Giuliani, Powell claimed without evidence that Venezuela, George Soros, the late Hugo Chávez and others were involved in an elaborate plot to steal the election from Trump. She has also long promoted the QAnon conspiracy movement that the FBI has identified as a domestic terror threat.
She represented Trump’s former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn in 2019 as part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation.
Twitter critics, including Anthony Scaramucci, who famously served just 11 days as Trump’s White House press secretary, let loose after the campaign’s sudden pivot:
The Sidney Powell situation is classic Trump. Coerce people into lying, and then fire them for following his instructions. A death cult where everyone drinks the poison except for him.
— Anthony Scaramucci (@Scaramucci) November 22, 2020
Well Sidney Powell lasted for about half a Scaramucci. pic.twitter.com/Vaz3duS4Zg
— Senator Adam Morfeld (@Adam_Morfeld) November 23, 2020
8 days ago Trump said Sidney Powell was on the team, 3 days ago the official GOP account elevated her conspiracy theories, and today they disavow Powell altogether.
This is an absolute trainwreck even by Trump standards. pic.twitter.com/tcHylNvvwK— Josh Jordan (@NumbersMuncher) November 23, 2020
Sidney Powell should refuse to concede her position from Trump’s legal team!!!
— William LeGate 🇺🇸 (@williamlegate) November 23, 2020
So just this month, Giuliani got caught with his hands down his pants in front of Borat, accidentally held a presser in a landscaping alley, and had a box's worth of hairdye melt on his scalp... and even THAT guy is like, "yeah we're definitely not associated with Sidney Powell." pic.twitter.com/hsr6yp0I3P
— Brian Tyler Cohen (@briantylercohen) November 23, 2020
Sidney Powell: That's the warning and the lesson for all Republicans. The Faustian Bargain with Trump isn't worth it. The end is always the same: shame and humiliation. He makes you give everything. He gives nothing. I feel no pity. Go all the way down with him.
— Wajahat "Wears a Mask Because of a Pandemic" Ali (@WajahatAli) November 22, 2020
Sidney Powell was probably the most powerful person to have ever believed in deep, mystic, devout QAnonism. Her Twitter profile picture is a reference to The Storm, which is the roundup and execution of Democrats in the Q world.
It was weird to me this wasn’t a bigger deal.— Ben Collins (@oneunderscore__) November 23, 2020
Ellis said Powell was part of the team https://t.co/1ImcJWf8uHpic.twitter.com/6jKfWQAEwT
— Jack Brewster (@jbruce218) November 22, 2020
I don’t get why Trump cut Sidney Powell loose.
How is she any less warped or tragic than any other of their cases or attorneys in PA?
Nearly 3 weeks after the election, my dude in Forty Fort + his dead mom still represents *50%* of the total voter fraud in PA out of 7M votes.— John Fetterman (@JohnFetterman) November 22, 2020
It’s obvious Sidney Powell was thrown under the bus because she accused the GOP governor of Georgia of gargantuan crimes, not because she’s a lunatic.
— Respectable Lawyer (@RespectableLaw) November 23, 2020
Here’s Sidney Powell having nothing to do with the Trump campaign legal team on Thursday pic.twitter.com/GgA13qBtjL
— Evan Siegfried (@evansiegfried) November 22, 2020
The issue with Sidney Powell may be as simple as Georgia — at the same time Republicans are desperately trying to hold onto two Senate seats there, she’s suggesting the state’s top Republicans are part of an election rigging conspiracy.
— Chris Megerian (@ChrisMegerian) November 22, 2020
Tonight I'm toasting Sidney Powell who lasted one Powell (4 days), who enlightened us about Hugo Chavez's sinister plot.
womp womp. pic.twitter.com/SVyJFMr4rw— Amy Siskind (@Amy_Siskind) November 23, 2020
Sidney Powell get doesn’t seem that much worse than Rudy “hair in a can dripping down my face” Giuliani and jenna “release the kraken’s micro penis” ellis
— Molly Jong-Fast🏡 (@MollyJongFast) November 23, 2020
2. Just three days ago, the official GOP twitter account was tweeting out videos of Sidney Powell at the press conference.
Now they’re saying she’s not involved in the campaign and doesn’t represent the president. pic.twitter.com/RTbbrxqfuu— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) November 22, 2020
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This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.