Jeb Bush Says That Donald Trump Should Be Challenged By A Republican In 2020
Jeb Bush says that a fellow Republican should challenge Donald Trump for the Republican Party’s nomination in 2020, saying that Americans need a choice.
As CBS News reports, Bush, who ran for president in 2016 and failed to earn his party’s nomination, said in an interview set to air on CNN on Saturday that other Republicans need to bring their platforms to the table so the voters can make an informed decision.
“To have a conversation about what it is to be a conservative I think is important. And our country needs to have competing ideologies that people — that are dynamic, that focus on the world we’re in and the world we’re moving towards rather than revert back to a nostalgic time.”
Bush noted, however, that the odds of Trump being unseated by his own party are slim to none. For starters, he says, Trump has a “strong, loyal base” that will come out in force to help him secure the nomination. There’s also the fact that incidents wherein a sitting president does not receive his party’s nomination are exceptionally rare.
In fact, it’s only happened once to an elected president, according to NPR. Franklin Pierce, the 14th president, elected in 1852, angered his Northern and Democratic bases with his pro-Southern and pro-slavery sentiments. When the Democrats held their convention in 1856, they nominated James Buchanan instead. Four other sitting presidents — John Tyler, Millard Fillmore, Andrew Johnson, and Chester Arthur — also failed to secure their party’s nominations. However, none of those men were elected. Rather, they all assumed the office upon the death of their predecessor.
Jeb Bush said he thinks a fellow Republican should challenge President Trump in 2020https://t.co/K4f2lD3yLh
— POLITICO (@politico) March 15, 2019
Meanwhile, signs within the Republican party point to the GOP closing ranks in order to protect Trump, according to CBS News writer Kathryn Watson. An attempt has already been made to change the by-laws within the party to prevent a challenger from making a run at Trump. The effort was unsuccessful, but it points to the GOP going to great lengths to protect Trump.
As of this writing, only one Republican has made any real moves to indicate that they are running for president. As previously reported by The Inquisitr, former Massachusetts Governor Bill Weld, who ran as Gary Johnson’s running mate on the Libertarian Party ticket in 2016, has formed an exploratory committee to consider whether or not to run. If he does, his candidacy would likely be a long-shot.
Jeb Bush, for his part, has been a vocal critic of Trump, a rarity among Republicans. For example, in 2017 Bush told The Yale Daily News that Mr. Trump is a “Republican in basically name only.”
