Ruling party official claims Congressman Joe Wilson “well-paid lobbyist”, hired by United National Movement party

Mamuka Mdinaradze, the Executive Secretary of the ruling Georgian Dream party, on Friday claimed that the US Congressman Joe Wilson was a well-paid lobbyist, hired by the opposition United National Movement party because he was identifying himself as a “Trumpist”.

“Joe Wilson is a very sociable person from the past, who sometimes would take a photo with Maka Botchorishvili [now the Georgian Foreign Minister], print it and send it, sometimes he would take a photo with Nika Samkharadze [the Georgian Parliament Committee Chair], sometimes he would offer to lobby, he was so sociable and with this communication it seems that he changed his style, because we did not pay him money”, Mdinaradze said.

He further noted that the United National Movement had hired Wilson because he was positioning himself as a conservative and a Trumpist, though his recent statements and decisions were not aligned with Trump’s policies.

“Manipulating the notion that he [Wilson] is a conservative Trumpist is outdated. He is a lobbyist who is paid a lot of money”, Mdinaradze concluded.