Reprinted with permission from American Independent

Katrina Pierson, Donald Trump's 2016 campaign spokesperson, reportedly plans to run for a vacant congressional seat. In addition to wearing a necklace adorned with bullets on a television appearance, Pierson is best known for her frequent false statements.

The Hill reported on Sunday that Pierson, who also advised Trump's unsuccessful 2020 campaign, plans to run in a special election to replace the late Republican Rep. Ron Wright in Texas' 6th Congressional District. Wright died last month of COVID-19.

Prior to working on Trump's campaigns, Pierson was a Texas-based Tea Party activist and an unsuccessful 2014 House candidate.

In April 2009, she called for Texas to leave the United States. "If I had my way, Texas would close the borders and secede from the nation. We can let those parasiting societies feed on themselves," she told a Dallas Tea Party rally.

As Trump's chief campaign spokesperson, Pierson frequently got caught lying to the American public.

She claimed in May 2016 that Trump's history of sexist comments and attacks on women were just some sort of performance art. "I really don't think this is going to be a problem," she told Fox News of Trump's misogynist insults. "A lot of those statements [are] what Mr. Trump made as a television character, so I don't think that some of that is going to stick."

In August 2016, Pierson baselessly accused journalists — who had been repeatedly subjected to bullying at Trump rallies — of physically attacking Trump supporters. "They are tired of seeing left-wing reporters literally beat Trump supporters into submission — into supporting policies that they don't agree with," she told Fox Business Network.

The same week, she said that President Barack Obama had started the war in Afghanistan in 2001 — when he was still a state senator in Illinois. She also blamed Obama for deaths in Iraq — before he was even elected to the U.S. Senate.

In 2018, she falsely claimed that an October 2016 strategy session held by Trump campaign officials about how to talk about a recording of Trump using racist language never happened. Hours later, secretly recorded audio reported to be of Pierson participating in such a strategy session was leaked to the public, forcing her to walk back her lie.

Pierson, who reportedly does not actually live in the Sixth Congressional District, will likely face Susan Wright, the late congressman's widow, in a GOP primary.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.