Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump departs after speaking at a campaign rally at Resch Center, Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2024, in Green Bay, Wis. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) — Donald Trump showered former NFL star Brett Favre with praise on Wednesday at a rally in Green Bay, Wisconsin, where the former Packers quarterback campaigned for the Republican presidential nominee in the final week before Election Day.

“Thank you, Brett. What a great honor. What a great champion," Trump said shortly after taking the stage at the Resch Center. Describing Favre's fingers as “like sausages," he said, “No wonder he could throw the ball."

“I’m a little upset because I think he got bigger applause than me, and I’m not happy,” the former president went on, joking about the ovation Favre received in a county that Trump narrowly won in 2020.

Trump appeared onstage in a orange safety vest after riding in a garbage truck to draw attention to an offensive comment by President Joe Biden. But he reignited a different controversy by revisiting his promise to “protect the women of our country.”

After complaining about his own staffers tell him it was “inappropriate,” Trump insisted, "I’m gonna do it whether the women like it or not.”

Trump rallied alongside Favre in the critical battleground state with just six days until the election. In a sign of the importance of the state, Trump’s Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, was campaigning simultaneously in overwhelmingly Democratic-voting Madison, roughly a 2 1/2-hour drive away.

Favre, who won three NFL Most Valuable Player awards and a Super Bowl for Green Bay in the 1990s, praised Trump before the former president arrived, telling the crowd, “Much like the Packer organization, Donald Trump and his organization was a winner.”

“The United States of America won with his leadership,” Favre said.

In relying on Favre, Trump is tapping into the state’s deep and loyal support for the Packers and the team’s onetime star quarterback. But Favre also comes with increased baggage after becoming enmeshed in Mississippi’s welfare spending scandal.

Favre, 55, is not facing any criminal charges, but he is among more than three dozen people or groups being sued as the state tries to recover misspent money. Favre has repaid just over $1 million he received in speaking fees funded by the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program. Mississippi Auditor Shad White, a Republican, has said Favre never showed up for the speaking engagements. White also said Favre still owes nearly $730,000 in interest.

Mississippi has ranked among the poorest states for decades, but only a fraction of its federal welfare money has been going to families. Instead, the Mississippi Department of Human Services allowed well-connected people to waste tens of millions of welfare dollars from 2016 to 2019, according to White and state and federal prosecutors.

A nonprofit group called the Mississippi Community Education Center made two payments of welfare money to Favre Enterprises, the athlete’s business: $500,000 in December 2017 and $600,000 in June 2018. The TANF money was to go toward a volleyball arena at the University of Southern Mississippi. Favre agreed to lead fundraising efforts for the facility at his alma mater, where his daughter started playing on the volleyball team in 2017.

The Mississippi Community Education Center director, Nancy New, pleaded guilty in April 2022 to charges of misspending welfare money, as did her son Zachary New, who helped run the nonprofit. They await sentencing and have agreed to testify against others.

Favre appeared in September before a Republican-led congressional committee that was examining how states are falling short on using welfare to help families in need. U.S. House Republicans have said a Mississippi welfare misspending scandal involving Favre and others points to the need for “serious reform” in the TANF program.

Favre told the congressional committee that he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in January.

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Wagster Pettus reported from Jackson, Mississippi. Beaumont reported from Des Moines, Iowa.

News from © The Associated Press, 2024