Tea Party Ex-Congressman Joe Walsh Apologizes For Helping Elect ‘Unfit Con Man’ Trump
The former Illinois representative urges a new primary challenge for the “reckless” and “incompetent” president.
Former Rep. Joe Walsh (R-Ill.), the conservative talk-show host and prominent “tea party” figure, on Wednesday called President Donald Trump an “unfit conman” and a “racial arsonist” and urged a primary challenge for the Republican nomination next year.
Walsh also apologized both for his own heated rhetoric over the years and for helping to elect Trump in 2016.
Writing in The New York Times, Walsh said:
“In Mr. Trump, I see the worst and ugliest iteration of views I expressed for the better part of a decade. To be sure, I’ve had my share of controversy. On more than one occasion, I questioned Mr. Obama’s truthfulness about his religion. At times, I expressed hate for my political opponents. We now see where this can lead. There’s no place in our politics for personal attacks like that, and I regret making them.”
... In the Times, he argued that Trump isn’t a conservative and that he’s vulnerable not just because he’s unfit for office but because of his poor record.
“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,” Walsh wrote. “It’s his poor record that makes him most worthy of a primary challenge.” ...
“We need someone who could stand up, look the president in the eye and say: ‘Enough, sir. We’ve had enough of your indecency. We’ve had enough of your lies, your bullying, your cruelty, enough of your insults, your daily drama, your incitement, enough of the danger you place this country in every single day. We don’t want any of this anymore, and the country certainly can’t stand four more years of it.’”
Read the full column here.
On Twitter, Walsh wrote that his column was both a call for someone to run against Trump and an apology for his own role in helping to elect him:
Joe Walsh
@WalshFreedom
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.
Walsh was widely praised for the mea culpa: ...
Joe, this is not nothing. Good on you.
You'll catch hell for this principled decision, but you're a good man for making it AND for the apology. Rare thing, that.
Joe, please stop making me like your tweets, it's very confusing.
Better late than never. It's good to see more and more people waking up to the monster that sits in the Oval Office. We need all the help we can get to save democracy and bring decency and clarity back to the United States. Thank you.