Diehl: Warren is ‘part of the problem and not at all a solution’

U.S. Senate candidate Geoff Diehl, a Republican state rep from Whitman, joined Herald Radio’s “Morning Meeting” show to talk the race and rhetoric from the left. Here are excerpts:

Q: What was your opinion of the “Boston Free Speech Rally” this past weekend?

A: There was an attempt to have a Free Speech movement or a Free Speech day and that got shut down and partially you got a mayor, in someways in my opinon, invited folks to come and try to shut that down by saying the city doesn’t welcome KKK or Nazis.

Well I don’t think anybody that was part of that free speech agenda was related to any of those groups but here he was talking about that in a way that kind of aroused the suspicions and invited, in certain ways, antifa to show up.

Q: What about the heat President Trump is taking over protests?

A: To me, trying to blame Trump for what seems to be an attempt to excuse antifa or not at least condemn them is a mistake as well . ... When we start blaming Trump we’ve got to look around and say, ‘Is anybody holding anybody responsible for the left and the messaging they’re trying to put out there against our president?’ ... There are active groups out there, like antifa, that are violently taking to the streets and it seems that one side of the aisle has no intent to condemn them as well.

Yet the president has gone on record several times now to condemn these actions.

Q: Why did you support Trump so early on?

A: The fact of the matter is that I supported the president because he and I shared a lot of the same ideas that I ran on when I first joined Beacon Hill and the Legislature as a member of the House. I think we share a lot of the same values and I think that right now in Washington you’re seeing obstruction, in some cases, on both sides of the aisle. It’s time for a change again because clearly Elizabeth Warren and a lot of Democrats haven’t gotten the message that Donald Trump did win the election.

Q: What about your race against Warren?

A: What concerns me more is the rhetoric coming from the left and specifically Elizabeth Warren. No surprise again. A big reason why I think she needs to be replaced down in Washington, she’s a part of the problem and not at all a part of the solution. I’m the only candidate running in this race to save taxpayers money ... and I’ve continued to work on issues that help the people of Massachusetts. That’s why I think that message is resonating with the hardworking taxpayers out there.