Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker accused the press this week of treating GOP front-runner Donald Trump with kid gloves, and compared coverage of the casino tycoon to media’s favored treatment of President Obama eight years ago.
The former 2016 GOP presidential candidate’s remarks came during an interview with talk radio host Charlie Sykes.
“[I]t is interesting, the different standards that every other [GOP] candidate is held to compared to Donald Trump,” said Sykes. “I mean almost every week he says something that would probably have tubed any other presidential candidate, and yet he continues to skate.”
Walker responded, “Well, there’s an interesting parallel in that regard … with President Obama, both as a candidate and then as president, and the phenomenon you see in this Republican primary and caucus process.”
“I mean you think about years ago, when Barack Obama said these folks are clinging to their guns and their bibles. Anybody else, you know if we had said that on the right, we would have been tubed as well. So it is interesting how they pick and choose who gets a pass on certain things and who doesn’t. But I don’t spend my time complaining about it, because it is what it is, and you just figure out ways to plow forward,” he added.
Along with expressing distaste for how the press supposedly gives Trump a pass on outrageous comments, Walker also said that his experience dealing with national media during his failed campaign was disheartening.
“I just think it has been interesting to see the national media, to see where they’ve gone,” he said. “Not just in terms of front-runner status, and who’s there or whatever, but to see … You know when you go from local to state, and then from state to national, the media coverage is going to be different.”
“But what has amazed me in this last year is to see how not only is there this national bias,” he added, “It’s not just what you say, but if you even pause now and think about saying something, in the pause, the media’s ready to jump in and say ‘Aw, well, he didn’t say this.'”
Walker ended his presidential campaign in September, and encouraged his similarly low-polling colleagues to do the same.
“Today, I believe that I’m being called to lead by helping to clear the field in this race so that a positive conservative message can rise to the top of the field,” he told reporters in a brief press conference. “With this in mind, I will suspend my campaign immediately.”
He added in his statement that 2016 contenders with little to no shot of winning the party’s nomination should drop out as soon as possible so that voters could get behind a “positive conservative alternative to the current front-runner.”
