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Kwame Kilpatrick (File photo)
Ex-Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, who is backing Donald Trump for president, said on 910 AM radio Monday morning that he is doing political consulting around the country, in addition to public speaking and managing his virtual ministry, Movemental Ministries, the Detroit Free Press reports.
"People call me about campaigns," he told radio host Justin Barclay. "I love that. I've never lost a political campaign."
In January 2021, President Trump commuted his 28-year sentence for public corrupton to time served. He served nearly eight years in federal prison.
After his release, he said he had no interest in running for office. State law bars him from running for now for any local or state office because of his conviction. He could run for Congress.
In April 2021, he told Deadline Detroit: "So I'm going to say this now, I'm not running for anything. I believe I've been put in a completely different lane."
Adolph Mongo, a political consultant and host of the podcast, "Detroit in Black and White," responded to Kilpatrick's comments Monday.
"The only thing he ever ran was his mouth," said Mongo, who was a political consultant for Kilpatrick while he was mayor. "He lied every time I talked to him. He never told the truth.
"He wouldn't know how to run any kind of campaign. Kwame would have been better as an actor."
Kilpatrick responded to Mongo's comments, telling Deadline Detroit:
"Well all the folks in politics know better. He’s a paid political hack. He will prostitute himself for whomever is the highest bidder. Lord help him."
At one point during Monday's interview, Barclay asked Kilpatrick about people who are wondering why they should believe anything he says, according to a report in the Detroit News.
"I think the people have a right to feel how they feel and think how they think. I don't know if they should believe me."
"Just keep watching, or not," Kilpatrick added. "I don't do this for people to believe me. I'm not walking in this side of my life for somebody to believe me ... I've apologized a million times. At the same time, I think you have to see the fruit of people's repentance."
Kilpatrick, who who was convicted of 24 felony counts in 2013 involving public corruption, has publicly apologized for some things, but not for others.
"I did the perjury," he told Craig Melvin of NBC's "Today" show in an interview aired in April 2022. "But all of this mail fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy, absolutely not."
Kilpatrick is one of the featured speakers at the GOP Oakland County Lincoln Day Dinner in Novi on Wednesday. He says he's not a Democrat or Republican.
In April, Kilpatrick posted a video on Instagram warning people to be skeptical of what politicians say.
He mentioned the politcal b.s. he peddled when he was in the state Legislature in Lansing, before becoming Detroit mayor. Kilpatrick was the minority floor leader for the Michigan Democratic Party from 1998 -2000 and House minority leader in 2001.
"When I was running the statewide campaign for the Democratic Caucus... I would put commercials in northern Michigan that say 'we got to stop the giant sucking sound from Detroit, they taking all our money.' They wasn't taking nothing from them people, but I needed my candidate to win so he could vote for me and I could be the leader... I had to repent for this in prison. I repented for this."
