Former Republican Rep. Joe Walsh (Ill.) made the case for President Trump to face a conservative primary challenger in an opinion piece for The New York Times on Wednesday.
Walsh, who has become a vocal critic of the president, wrote that he voted for Trump in 2016 not because he supported the Republican nominee but because “he wasn’t Hillary Clinton.”
“But I soon realized that I couldn’t support him because of the danger he poses to the country, especially the division he sows at every chance, culminating a few weeks ago in his ugly, racist attack on four minority congresswomen,” Walsh wrote.
“The fact is, Mr. Trump is a racial arsonist who encourages bigotry and xenophobia to rouse his base and advance his electoral prospects,” he added.
Walsh wrote that Trump is “unfit for office” and listed issues that should make Republicans view Trump as a liability.
“No matter his flag-hugging, or his military parades, he’s no patriot. In front of the world, he sides with Vladimir Putin over our own intelligence community. That’s dangerous,” the Republican wrote. “He encouraged Russian interference in the 2016 election, and he refuses to take foreign threats seriously as we enter the 2020 election. That’s reckless. For three years, he has been at war with our federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies, as he embraces tyrants abroad and embarrasses our allies. That’s un-American.”
Former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld (R) is challenging Trump “from the center,” Walsh noted.
“But the president is more vulnerable to a challenge from the right. I’m on the right, and I’m hugely disappointed that challenge hasn’t yet materialized,” the former lawmaker wrote.
Walsh, who pushed to “restrain executive power and reduce the debt” while serving in Congress, said that the president is not a conservative.
“He’s reckless on fiscal issues; he’s incompetent on the border; he’s clueless on trade; he misunderstands executive power; and he subverts the rule of law. It’s his poor record that makes him most worthy of a primary challenge,” Walsh wrote.
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“The fact is, Mr. Trump is a racial arsonist who encourages bigotry and xenophobia to rouse his base and advance his electoral prospects." https://t.co/oqN0exyDlm
— The Hill (@thehill) August 14, 2019
Why did I write this piece? Two reasons: First, I wanted to make clear that Donald Trump is unfit to be President, and he MUST be challenged in the Republican primary.
And second, I wanted to apologize for the role I played in helping to put an unfit con man in the White House. https://t.co/BzXJD4AfOf
— Joe Walsh (@WalshFreedom) August 14, 2019
Well, Mr. Walsh, since you say you are on the right, why don’t you challenge Trump?
Bottom line is the party as a whole is too dang afraid to challenge him. No one wants to have to deal with what Ted Cruz had to.
Walsh knew that Trump was all of these things before he was elected yet he chose to support him anyway. Now he tries to redeem himself. Nice try Walsh.
Fmr. Rep. Joe Walsh: "I voted for Trump, I didn't love him, I didn't like him. I voted for him because he wasn't Hillary." https://t.co/6eYYeGH7Dq pic.twitter.com/8uGMAHfI11
— The Hill (@thehill) August 15, 2019
“I voted for him because he wasn’t Hillary.”
And look at how well that worked out for you and the rest of us.
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