‘I’m Going To Punch Him In The Face Every Single Day,’ Says Republican Expected To Primary Donald Trump
Tea Party conservative, talk radio host, and former Republican Congressman Joe Walsh has all but officially announced his candidacy for President of the United States.
If and when he announces, Walsh will not be joining the crowded Democratic primary field. He will join former Massachusetts Governor Bill Weld in the Republican primary and launch a challenge against President Donald Trump.
Walsh shared his thoughts about the president, the Republican Party, and his expected candidacy in an interview with the Washington Examiner.
“If I do do this, I’m going to punch him in the face every single day,” he said.
“I’m going to call him out because I think he’s an absolute con man who is a danger to the party and the country,” the former congressman said of Trump.
As the Washington Examiner notes, Walsh used to be a strong supporter of President Trump and voted for him in 2016. However, he changed his opinion about the commander-in-chief following the Helsinki summit.
After the Helsinki summit — when Trump met with Vladimir Putin, agreeing with the Russian president that there is no evidence that the Kremlin meddled in the 2016 presidential election — Walsh changed his opinion about the president, becoming one of his staunchest conservative critics.
The vast majority of Republican politicians — and, perhaps more importantly, voters — do not share Walsh’s opinion. Trump has an exceptionally high approval rating among Republicans, which many claim makes winning a primary against him impossible.
Walsh disagrees with that assessment, and believes that Republican politicians have grown “tired” of President Trump, he revealed in the interview.
Ex-GOP lawmaker Joe Walsh expected to announce Republican presidential run against Trump: report https://t.co/8AUuwOFfU6 pic.twitter.com/fPegN2fyIU
— The Hill (@thehill) August 22, 2019
According to Walsh, Republicans are not only frustrated that Trump behaves like he is “above the law,” and by the fact that he seems to side with Putin over American intelligence agencies, they are also “tired of just the daily bulls*it, the daily drama, but they’re afraid to say anything because they want to get reelected.”
As for Republican voters, they cannot be persuaded with a middle ground approach of fiscal responsibility championed by Trump’s other primary challenger Bill Weld, according to Walsh, who claims that wanting fiscal responsibility is “not a good enough reason” to launch a formidable challenge against Trump.
“If I can’t win, I at least want to wake up Republican voters to get back to the issues that we believed in before Trump,” the former Tea Party congressman said.
“It’s the right thing to do,” he concluded.
Walsh also vowed to support whoever decides to challenge Trump and to take on the Republican establishment if it attempts to “rig” the primary against him, or any other Republican willing to run against the president.
