Lara Trump introduces 5 Michigan voters as a bipartisan panel. Turns out, four of them had deep ties to the Mike Rogers campaign

During a Saturday night edition of her Fox News program My View, Lara Trump brought on five guests for a discussion she presented as a bipartisan look at Michigan voters. Each person was identified on screen only by that broad label. Later accounts revealed that four of them had already been involved with the campaign of Republican Senate candidate Mike Rogers.

The connections were initially highlighted by the progressive watchdog organization MeidasTouch and were subsequently verified by Mediaite. Every member of the panel had publicly backed Rogers, and four had joined him at in-person campaign stops.

Karen Whitsett, one of the five, is a former Michigan state senator who completed four terms as a Democrat. She also holds the treasurer role for Together for Michigan, a super PAC supporting Rogers that was first launched under the name Democrats for Mike Rogers. Recent filings show the group has put more than $4 million into the race on his behalf.

All guests have publicly voiced their support for Rogers

Whitsett addressed her decision to back Rogers, who claims to have an early lead in the election, during the segment. She said, “Mike Rogers, was he my number one pick? No, I’m not going to say that.” She went on, “But this is an example of what I mean when I’m saying, as a Black community, learn to have value within yourself. Your vote matters. We cannot keep sitting here saying that we’re going to ‘vote blue, no matter who’ and we don’t even have a seat at the table.”

Chelsea Rebeck joined Rogers for an August 20 press event that was staged outside the home of Whitsett’s mother-in-law. On the Fox panel, she said, “The only thing that comes to mind when I think about [Rogers’s opponent] Abdul El-Sayed is that the greatest trick that the devil ever pulled was convincing the world that he didn’t exist.”

She added, “You don’t have to show me more than once who you are, and I judge you by the company that you keep.”

Speaking at that same August 20 gathering, Rebeck called herself a lifelong Democrat. She stated, “I’m voting for Mike Rogers because sometimes the election calls for us to look at something bigger than our party lines. The Democratic nominee that we’ve been given does not share my values, and he does not agree with a world that I want my children to grow up in.”

Rabbi Asher Lopatin was also on hand for the August 20 event. According to The Jerusalem Post, he stepped away from his regular job in order to campaign for Rogers. Fox News itself noted his presence at the stop in its coverage.

Mark Gjokaj appeared at a Rogers event held on September 23. He is an elected precinct delegate for the Republican Party in Macomb County, Michigan.

Anton Daniels, the remaining panelist, showed no direct campaign role in the available reporting. He runs a YouTube channel with more than 1.5 million subscribers and has regularly offered right-leaning political commentary. In the past week, he appeared on NewsNation and voiced support for Rogers.

Rogers and his allies have repeatedly attacked El-Sayed over his alleged Muslim Brotherhood ties and tried to establish him as a national security threat. El-Sayed has denied these allegations, and portrayed Rogers as a yes man, who would prioritize the president’s agenda over the interests of his constituents.