Josh Holt discusses life after his imprisonment in a Venezuelan jail from his Riverton home on Thursday, June 21, 2018. Holt, who was imprisoned for nearly two years, was released last month. (Laura Seitz, Deseret News)
SALT LAKE CITY – We now know Josh Holt’s reaction to President Trump bringing up him and Rep. Mia Love the day after the election.
Trump said Love lost the election, which is not true as the race has not been called, because she didn’t show him enough support.
“Mia Love. I saw Mia Love. She called me all the time to help with a hostage situation,” Trump said. “But Mia Love gave me no love. She lost. Too bad. Sorry about that, Mia.”
Trump was referring to Holt being held in a prison in Venezuela. Holt, who was released from prison in May, offered his reaction to the president’s comments.
“I didn’t know that it was Mia’s responsibility to need to ask the president to help one of their citizens,” Holt said. “I thought that was the entire U.S. government’s responsibility to get me out of that situation, not just Mia Love’s and Senator Hatch’s.”
Votes are still being counted in the 4th Congressional race. Love said she did have use of so-called robo-calls from President Trump, but her campaign put them to limited use.
Marc Giauque contributed to this report.