Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker refused to defend his 2016 presidential campaign manager nearly two weeks after he ended his bid for the Republican nomination.
In the wake of multiple reports where Rick Wiley laid the blame on Walker for his failed 2016 campaign, Walker took a pass at defending the GOP operative, who has been blamed for spending too much money too fast while ramping up his campaign operation.
“In terms of the campaign, I made a statement on the 21st of last month,” Walker told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Friday. “I’m not going to comment any more on the campaign, other than to say I’m committed to being governor moving forward.”
The comments came after R.J. Johnson, Walker’s campaign manager during his three successful gubernatorial victories, took a hatchet to Wiley on Facebook last week and blasted him for his critique of Walker following the campaign.
In his post, Johnson said “amen” to an op-ed piece by Charlie Sykes titled “Good Riddance, Rick Wiley.”
“It’s one thing to fail at a campaign and there’s more than one reason this one did,” Johnson said. “But it’s quite another to publicly and repeatedly blame your client for that failure, one you had full ownership in. The same client who paid you and trusted you with their life, their most personal details and their reputation.”
Johnson went on to bash Wiley for blaming Walker for the 2016 troubles. Wiley intimated that Walker might not have been “ready” for a presidential run despite winning three gubernatorial races in four years, Johnson wrote in the post. He ripped into Wiley, a former Republican National Committee political hand, for being unethical in the wake of the campaign’s failure.
“It crosses a line that any ethical political consultant would avoid,” he wrote. “And when you cross it, the beating that follows is one of your own making.”
