Republican presidential candidate Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker confronted protesters in Iowa and expressed his anger at the GOP during his turn at the Des Moines Register’s soapbox on Monday.
Donald Trump and Ben Carson knocked Walker out of the top two candidate spots in Iowa polls after the first GOP presidential debate, and Walker returned to his neighboring state swinging.
A protester approached the stage with a yellow sign labeled “warning” and was soon swarmed by Walker’s supporters waving his blue signs.
“I am not intimidated by you, sir, or anyone else out there,” Walker said to the protester. “You want someone who’s tested; I’m right here. … We will do what is necessary to defend the American people going forward.”
Walker used the confrontation to talk about his battles with protesters in Madison, Wis., and suggested that the protesters decided to pick on the wrong politician. He also used his time onstage to vent his anger at his own party, which is an emotion that Trump has ridden to the top of the polls and Carson has benefited from as well.
“We didn’t just take on the big government union bosses in Wisconsin, we didn’t just take on Democrats, we took on the Republican establishment,” Walker told the Iowa crowd. “I’m frustrated with the Republican leadership in Washington.”
Walker listed his specific gripes including that Republicans, particularly those in Congress. Earlier on Monday, Walker went on Glenn Beck’s show to list his complaints.
“People are frustrated, heck, I’m angry,” Walker told Beck. “I’m angry at the so-called leaders in Washington particularly in the Republican Party who claimed they were going to repeal Obamacare if they got the Senate majority, who claimed they were going to do something about illegal immigration. We have yet to see that.”
Walker’s decision to criticize his own party stands in stark contrast to his recent comments attacking Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. On the debate stage and the campaign trail thereafter, Walker had implemented a new strategy of attacking Clinton first and foremost. But as he has slipped in recent polls, Walker’s message this week seems to have shifted to focus on GOP primary voters’ resentment of the Republican Party.
Walker will visit another neighboring state, Minnesota, on Tuesday to unveil his plan to repeal and replace Obamacare.
