Eric Deters says he, Donald Trump agreed before Kentucky Derby: They don't like McConnell

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Eric Deters, the suspended Northern Kentucky lawyer and long-shot candidate for governor, said he paid $75,000 to attend a fundraiser for former President Donald Trump Saturday before the Kentucky Derby, and the two found common ground.

Deters said he told Trump he dislikes Kentucky’s senior U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell "as much as you do."

Trump replied with a one-word response, calling McConnell a "scumbag," Deters said.

Trump met about 15 high-roller supporters Saturday in a private lounge at Louisville International Airport, where Deters said the former president met individually with donors but did not deliver remarks.

Deters said he talked to Trump but did not ask for his endorsement.

“It is way too early,” said the notorious online TV host who calls himself “The Bulldog” and so far has raised $35,460 for his campaign, according to his most recent spending report.

The Courier Journal couldn't reach a spokesperson for Trump for comment Monday, and McConnell's spokespeople did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

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McConnell said after the storming of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, that Trump was “practically and morally responsible” for provoking it, though the Kentucky Republican voted to acquit Trump of inciting the insurrection in his second impeachment and has mostly stayed mum about him since.

Trump has periodically denounced McConnell, calling him “Old Crow,'' even though McConnell, who turned 80 in February, is only about four years older.

More on D: Mitch McConnell gives wry nod to Donald Trump with Kentucky Derby gift to GOP senators

On Saturday, Trump’s high-roller entourage moved on to a room at Churchill Downs, where Deters said freeloaders got to meet and greet the all-but-announced presidential candidate without paying the $150,000-per-couple donation.

Deters said they included Kelly Craft, Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations who has been said to be considering a run for governor.

“She was trying to hog Trump, but I didn’t let that bother me,” Deters said. “I went up and spoke to him at length.”

In a video, Deters said out of respect for their confidentiality, he wouldn’t name any of the paying guests to Trump's event, but in The Courier Journal interview, he identified two.

One was Saul Fox, a private equity chief executive who raised $580,600 for Trump at two fundraisers at his California home.

The other was billionaire Leandro Rizzuto Jr., another big Trump donor whose father built Conair Corp., the hair products giant.

After Senate Republicans and Democrats refused to confirm Rizzuto Jr. as ambassador to Barbados, Trump named him principal officer at the U.S. Consulate General in Bermuda, which didn’t require Senate confirmation.

Deters, a self-described “legal outlaw” who once called Kentucky bar officials “jokes of human excrement” and the Kentucky Supreme Court “the seven dwarfs.”

He was suspended from practicing law four times, and in October, after he vowed to continue to practice, Kentucky bar officials moved to find him in contempt in an action still pending before the Supreme Court.

Andrew Wolfson: 502-582-7189; awolfson@courier-journal.com; Twitter: @adwolfson.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Suspended lawyer says Donald Trump called Mitch McConnell 'scumbag'