President Trump’s reelection campaign on Sunday dismissed former Illinois Rep. Joe Walsh’s decision to challenge the president in the Republican primary in 2020.
ABC’s Jonathan Karl said on This Week with George Stephanopoulos that Trump’s reelection campaign did not appear to be fazed at all by Walsh’s announcement, responding with just one word: “Whatever.”
The 57-year-old Walsh declared his White House bid in an interview with Stephanopoulos on Sunday morning, saying that Trump is “morally unfit” to be president and bashing the president as a “child.”
“I’m betting you’re tired of having an unfit con man for a president. A president who sides with foreign dictators over our intelligence community. A president who spews hate virtually every time he opens his mouth. A president who is teaching millions of American children it’s okay to lie and it’s okay to bully,” Walsh states on his campaign website.
“See, Donald Trump doesn’t represent us—he represents the worst of us. He hasn’t delivered on his promises, he thinks he’s above the law, and he’s tweeting us into a recession, as we speak,” he continued. “You know it, I know it, we all know it: We can’t afford four more years of Donald Trump. No way.”
Walsh served one term in Congress before launching a career as a conservative radio host. He was originally a supporter of Trump back in 2016, but has since become one of the harshest Republican critics of the president and his rhetoric.
Walsh faces a steep battle to unseat Trump as the GOP nominee. Current polls show that the president has an 88% approval rating among Republicans.
The former congressman joins former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld in the Republican presidential primary field ahead of next year’s national party convention in Charlotte, North Carolina.
