Conservative radio host Joe Walsh may run against Trump

Joe Walsh, a conservative radio host who served one term as an Illinois congressman, is inching toward challenging President Trump in a Republican primary.

“I’m strongly, strongly considering it. That’s — again, I’m not trying to be cute or coy. I’ve told you before — if somebody’s going to get in there and go after him … it’s got to be done soon,” Walsh, 57, said Thursday on CNN.

“You’re running out of time. But more importantly, these are not conventional times. Look at the guy in the White House. These are urgent times,” said Walsh, who last week apologized for his role in helping elect an “unfit con man.”

Walsh, who was elected in 2010 as part of the Tea Party movement, said he voted for Trump in 2016 only because Trump wasn’t Hillary Clinton.

But he said he changed his views after Trump’s press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, Finland, last year in which he sided with the Russian strongman over his own intelligence community’s assessments of meddling in the election.

When asked when he’ll decide on whether to challenge Trump, Walsh said, “Labor Day’s in what — a week. If you want to get in, you’ve got to get in within the next week or so.”

Calling Trump a “horrible human being,” Walsh said the president was setting a poor example for children with his divisive rhetoric.

“The only way you primary Donald Trump and beat him is to expose him for the con man he is. And if I did it, John, that’s what I’d do,” he said, adding that the “silence” from other Republicans is “what’s so disappointing.”

Trump is already facing a GOP primary challenge by former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld — and also could face a challenge from former Rep. Mark Sanford of South Carolina.

Source: Read Full Article