US Senate candidate Mike Rogers discusses Trump assassination attempt, campaign fundraising at RNC

U.S. Senate Candidate Mike Rogers was among those who spoke at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee on Tuesday. He’s looking to replace Democrat Debbie Stabenow who is retiring when her term ends in January 2025.

The former Congressman and FBI Agent is the GOP frontrunner in the primary, but in the battle for campaign financing, Rogers has some work to do against his likely Democratic opponent Elissa Slotkin.

Rogers raised just over $2 million over the past three months, while Slotkin brought in over $6 million.

I spoke with Rogers at the convention about the conspiracy theories that have been flying around social media in the days since the assassination attempt against former President Trump. Rogers says the truth will come out following a long investigation.

Listen: Mike Rogers discusses Trump assassination attempt, campaign fundraising at RNC

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Mike Rogers: I think there was a failure by the Secret Service to cover a certain area. I think I’m going to wait for the investigation to determine what that was. When you have a high space with direct sight to VIP, the former president, that space needs to be covered. So I’m going to wait until I see the facts. It does appear to me that someone messed up in a big way. It could have been as easy as they thought it was one of their own, that building was being used as a staging area. They just weren’t sure, and they were trying to get it clarified too late. Or it could have been something worse, I don’t know. I’m going to guess the first, not the latter, but I will tell you what, somebody needs to be held to account on this. This was a catastrophic failure that allowed him to get off eight shots at the former president, without any engaged fire at that point. I mean, it’s very worrisome. I think they’re going to have to have to go through that internal review, and it should not be comfortable.

Russ McNamara: So how do you feel about the message of unity coming out of that? Because, as we know, we’ve seen over the last, you know, eight years, the [former] President has his own feelings and certain things that maybe make it outside of his comms team, shall we say.

Rogers: Well, I’ve seen Biden do the same thing. We got to be careful here. This isn’t a one-sided problem. It’s probably a two-sided political problem. And listen, I think it’s always better if we can have a respectful difference of opinion on the way forward, that should happen. We need to talk about, you know, what an open border is doing to our communities. We need to talk about what fentanyl is doing coming through an open border to our communities, but we could probably do that in a way that doesn’t demonize the other team. And so we’re all going to have to work at it, I bet. And my argument is, I think we can do that. I think the President is going to try to set that tone.

McNamara: I peeped in on a different conversation you were having with other reporters about how the the Democratic Party is kind of a coastal party. Is that maybe a little disrespectful to the states of Michigan, Illinois and Wisconsin, which have trended more blue in the last couple of elections?

Rogers: No, I just, what I’m talking about was the fundraising. They are raising an ungodly amount of money from the west and east coast. It’s not Michigan money that’s pouring into these campaigns. It’s Hollywood money. It is Aspen money. It’s San Francisco, it’s New York City. We get that, but I don’t think that represents really the people who are getting up every day, going to work, putting their kids on the bus and trying to make it by the end of the day.

McNamara: Well, Elon Musk and some other hedge funders have pledged millions of their own for the upcoming election. I guess, it kind of goes both ways. Does that kind of speak to maybe a different problem of campaign fundraising overall?

Rogers: I’ve always believed that there’s…how much money you have to raise to compete in one of these races, it’s absolutely ridiculous, but that’s the nature of the game. Apparently, TV and radio still wants to put ads on, and so you know you’ve got to pay for all that system, and I get it. I hope there’s a better way, I sure would like to figure it out.

Use the media player above to listen to the interview with Rogers at the Republican National Convention.