An Indiana Democrat running for county council said she had a three-beer pregame before her televised candidate forum last week.
Jaime West, the Democratic candidate for Fayette County Council District 4, said Monday that she drank the beer before her Oct. 9 interview.
In the interview with Connersville TV3, Ms. West slurred her words, admitted she had not prepared an opening statement and delivered a meandering monologue in a now-viral interview that has been likened online to a “Saturday Night Live” skit.
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During an appearance on “Piers Morgan Uncensored,” Ms. West acknowledged that she drank alcohol to calm her nerves before the event, then admitted she consumed the three beers.
Ms. West said that she was not intoxicated during the interview, however, and said, “I do know what I’m talking about when it comes to Indiana politics.”
She said she was “nervous” about going into “a room full of Republicans.”
When asked in the Oct. 9 interview what her most unpopular decision would be in office, Ms. West stated she would “fire all Republicans,” adding, “I don’t even talk to them. I don’t like them.”
On Monday, she said, “What do you want me to say? I don’t like being around them.”
She added, “Take it as you want. I said what I said. Fire the Republican politicians.”
Ms. West said she has no regrets about anything she said in the earlier interview.
“I say it all the time. I’m not friends with them. I don’t like them,” she said. “They voted for all of this that’s happening and to our country.
“I mean, I have every right to be angry, and so does every American.”
Ms. West also criticized the Make America Great Again movement and closed out with the remark, “We have guns, too.”
She continued, “For the last 10 years, MAGA has been sending me messages. They threatened me to my face. I mean, they threatened to blow my head off.”
She added that she and her husband, a Republican whom she called a “conservative” and “libertarian,” do not talk about the guns he owns.
“We don’t talk about politics,” she said, laughing, before adding, “but I got his vote.”
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