Trump says if ‘Pee-wee Herman’ calls needing money for Georgia, ‘tell him I’m not in’

Trump went to Perry, Georgia, on Saturday night to sell the state on a Senate nominee, Mike Collins, and a governor nominee, Rick Jackson. His pitch was about access. “There’s a big difference when a president, president has a lot of power, a big difference when he likes the people representing a state,” he said. Collins, he said, “could call me any time he wants. Mike, how you doing? You got to help the farmers.”

Then he acted out the other kind of call. “But there’s a big difference between that and Pee-wee Herman calling,” he said. “Tell him I’m not in. I’m not in. But he needs money for Georgia. I don’t give a damn what he wants. I’m not in.”

He didn’t name the caller, but he’d already told the crowd who he pictures as Pee-wee Herman. More than an hour earlier, he went back to the 2017 special election in which Karen Handel beat Jon Ossoff, Georgia’s Democratic senator now up for re-election, and said her opponent looked like Pee-wee Herman. “They’re all handsome to me,” he said, after calling a congressman handsome, “I see this guy as Pee-wee Herman, I always did.” The way we hear it, Georgia’s money depends on whether he likes who’s calling. He even saw the problem coming: “And probably I shouldn’t say that because they’ll say this is not appropriate.”

He said it anyway, and then added a bit more. “When other people call me, I’m terrible. I’m just terrible.” No argument from us.