Politics

Newly Released Rod Blagojevich Thanks Trump, Lists New Party Affiliation: ‘I’m A Trumpocrat’

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Speaking to reporters following his release from a Colorado federal prison Tuesday evening and before boarding a plane in Denver’s airport, former Democratic Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich expressed his gratitude to President Donald Trump and even listed a new party affiliation for himself.

“It’s been a long time,” he told WGN News reporter Julie Unruh. “I’m profoundly grateful to President Trump and it’s a profound and everlasting gratitude. He didn’t have to do this. He’s a Republican president and I was a Democratic governor. I’ll have a lot more to say tomorrow.”

NBC’s Haleigh Hoffman posted video of the former Illinois governor listing his “party affiliation” as a “Trumpocrat.”

“He’s got obviously a big fan in me,” he said. “If you’re asking what my party affiliation is, I’m a Trumpocrat.”

Blagojevich served eight years out of a 14-year federal sentence for trying to sell then-president-elect Barack Obama’s Illinois Senate seat. Trump granted the former Democratic governor clemency, meaning that while his prison term has come to an end, his original conviction will stand. (RELATED: Michael Tracey: Bloomberg Campaign ‘The Most Brazen, Oligarchic Intervention In The History Of American Electoral Politics’)

“Yes, we commuted the sentence of Rod Blagojevich. He served eight years in jail, a long time. He seems like a very nice person, don’t know him,” Trump said Tuesday.