Second Republican to mount 2020 challenge to ‘unfit’ Trump
WASHINGTON: Former Illinois congressman Joe Walsh announced Sunday that he would challenge Donald Trump for the Republican presidential nomination, calling the current occupant of the White House ‘completely unfit’ for office.
Walsh, who is 57, is Trump’s second declared Republican challenger, after moderate former Massachusetts governor William Weld announced his candidacy in April.
“I’m running because he’s unfit. Somebody needs to step up and there needs to be an alternative,” Walsh, now a conservative talk radio host, said on ABC’s “This Week.”
“The country is sick of this guy’s tantrums. He’s a child.”
After defying mainstream Republicans in 2016 to seize the party’s nomination, Trump now presides over a solid base of support that seems nearly impervious to the controversies he constantly generates.
Few rank-and-file Republicans have been willing to publicly defy the president.
Walsh — a onetime favourite of the right-wing Tea Party movement — said it was because ‘they’re afraid. Because they’re scared to death.’
He challenged Trump on grounds of character, competence and conservatism.
“He’s increased the deficit faster than President Obama,” Walsh said.
“He’s erratic. He’s cruel. He stokes bigotry. He’s incompetent ... He’s a narcissist.”
While neither he nor Weld is given much chance of wresting the nomination from the incumbent, the emergence of their dissenting voices might shine a light on divisions within the party.
Trump is not the first sitting American president to face a primary challenge.
In 1980, Jimmy Carter had to battle to the end of the primary season before prevailing against Senator Ted Kennedy.
Carter won the party’s nomination but lost the general election to Ronald Reagan. — AFP