Assuming partial blame for the rise of President Trump, former Rep. Joe Walsh stressed the importance of apologizing and claimed the president helped him realize the error of his ways.
During a Sunday morning interview on ABC’s This Week, George Stephanopoulos confronted Walsh with some of his harsh rhetoric toward Barack Obama, when he referred to the former president as a “Muslim,” “an enemy,” and “a traitor.” He then brought up past tweets in which the Illinois Republican claimed that Obama “was held to a lower standard cuz he was black,” and that “if you’re black & a woman, you can say dumb things,” in reference to Democratic California Sen. Kamala Harris.
“That is kind of textbook racism and sexism,” Stephanopoulos asserted.
A seemingly penitent Walsh pivoted back to Trump in response, saying, “Again, the beauty of what President Trump has done is, George, he’s made me reflect on some of the things I’ve said in the past.” Walsh then confessed that “too often” he allowed his policy disagreements with Obama to become personal.
“Did you really believe he was a Muslim?” Stephanopoulos asked, to which Walsh responded, “God no, and I’ve apologized for that, and that’s not an easy thing to do.”
Walsh then went on to contrast his readiness to apologize on national television to the president’s unwillingness to “[apologize] for anything he’s done or said.” Walsh said he thinks it’s “a weakness not to apologize,” and then went on to apologize further for having contributed to Trump and the nation’s “personal, ugly politics.”
Walsh announced Sunday during the same interview that he will be challenging Trump for the 2020 Republican nomination.
