Former national security adviser Michael Flynn endorsed a GOP challenger to Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) on Friday, his first public appearance since pleading guilty last year to lying to the FBI and announcing he would cooperate with special counsel Robert Mueller.
At a campaign event for Palm Springs, Calif., Republicans in support of GOP candidate Omar Navarro, Flynn told attendees that he was “not here to complain about who has done me wrong.”
“I’m not here to complain about who has done me wrong or how unfair I’ve been treated or how unfair the entire process has been. It is what it is, and my previous statements they stand for themselves,” he said.
Flynn spoke to the crowd for roughly 50 minutes after being introduced as having “briefly served” in the Trump administration.
Flynn went on to directly attack Navarro’s opponent, whom he accused of having been in office too long and living several miles outside of her district.
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“Ms. Waters has been in office for Omar’s entire life,” Flynn said to laughs before highlighting that Navarro began by “kicking off his campaign with a mariachi band five miles outside the district in front of Ms. Waters’s $4 million home.”
Waters responded to Flynn’s endorsement of Navarro on Twitter, attacking Navarro for pleading guilty to placing a tracking device on his wife’s car before accusing him of recruiting another “indicted criminal” to help his campaign.
“Indicted Michael Flynn who pleaded guilty about his conversations w/ Russians is in CA tonight campaigning for convicted Omar Navarro on probation for putting a tracking device on his wife’s car. Apparently, the two will spend a lot of time together discussing their crimes,” Waters tweeted.
“Desperate, unstable, and convicted criminal Omar Navarro stoops low in soliciting help from another indicted criminal in a campaign against #MaxineWaters – what a campaign!” she added.
Waters previously faced Navarro for the seat in 2016, easily defeating the GOP activist by a more than 50-point margin.
Flynn served in the Trump administration for just 24 days last year before being fired after misleading White House officials about his Russian contacts.
The former national security adviser pleaded guilty in December to lying to FBI agents and said he would cooperate with Mueller’s probe into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election.