Never-Trump Republican Joe Walsh threw his hat into the 2020 Republican primary race on Sunday with an announcement on ABC’s This Week. To prove he was going make the “conservative case” against President Trump he decided to announce his candidacy on a show hosted by Clinton lackey George Stephanopoulos.
Of course, Stephanopoulos humored him by letting the former Congressman bash the President and pushed back weakly on Walsh’s history of incredibly racist statements.
Yet, during the so-called “powerhouse roundtable”, they admitted that Walsh didn’t have a chance at beating Trump; and Stephanopoulos found the important “question” was whether or not Walsh could “wound” the President’s chances.
“And as we come on the air this morning, a new political threat, a potential challenge from one of his own,” Stephanopoulos enthusiastically announced at the top of his program. “Conservative firebrand, Joe Walsh, a Tea Party congressman now a talk radio host and no stranger to controversy and incendiary rhetoric.”
Walsh was the first guest and there was no time wasted in getting to his case against Trump (click “expand”):
STEPHANOPOULOS: And Joe Walsh joins us now. Good morning.
JOE WALSH: Hey, George. Good to be with you.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Have you reached a decision.
WALSH: Yes, and it's great to be with you. I'm going to run for president and I'm happy to be on your show announcing my candidacy.
Stephanopoulos offered weak pushback against the fact that nearly every poll showed Republican support for Trump “over 80 percent”. “They don’t have an alternative,” Walsh argued.
Speaking of weak push back, Stephanopoulos did dig up some of Walsh’s old tweets. “Right there, number one, ‘we lowered the bar for Obama, he was held to a lower standard because he was black’” he read.
That was followed up with a tweet about Senator Kamala Harris (D-CA) and how “if you're black and a woman you can say dumb things.” “That is kind of textbook racial and sexism,” Stephanopoulos declared.
While ABC did find those tweets, they omitted ones far worse. As Daily Caller senior reporter Peter Hasson uncovered, Walsh once whined about not being able to use the N-word. [Warning explicit language ahead] Walsh decried: “Found out if I said Redskins or Cracker or Redneck Bible Thumper, I could stay on. But if I said Nigger or Spick, they cut me off.”
If Trump had tweeted that, the media would rightfully be all over him.
Walsh was also asked about his fellow Trump challenger, former Massachusetts Governor Bill Weld, and his recent tweet saying the President was “a clear and present danger to our country to the globe and to himself” and demanding the 25th Amendment should be invoked. “It should be looked at,” Walsh replied.
The ABC host then wanted Walsh to “set aside the personal differences you have with President Trump, what's the conservative case for why President Trump should be replaced?” “He's incompetent. He has no freaking clue what he's doing,” Walsh exclaimed.
In 2016, the liberal media were furious at Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) because he was hurting their precious Hillary Clinton by staying in the race and challenging her. This time around they’re supportive of candidates with no chance against Trump. Stephanopoulos seemed to admit it during the “powerhouse roundtable”.
“The odds of him being able to beat Donald Trump in the Republican primary--,” faux Republican Matthew Dowd began when Stephy interjected with: “But can he wound him, is the question.”
That’s what the liberal media are interested in when they give a platform to Trump’s Republican challengers.
The transcript is below, click "expand" to read:
ABC’s This Week
August 25, 2019
9:01:33 a.m. EasternGEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: “I alone can fix it”, that signature from 2016 pretty much sums up Donald Trump’s approach to the presidency and this week he pushed it about as far as it can go. With a dizzying series of impulsive moves on everything from buying Greenland to background checks on guns. Tax cuts on and off the table, then back on again. Attacks on China and the Fed that sent the stock market into a tailspin, and threatened the strong economy that's been his best selling point for re-election.
And as we come on the air this morning, a new political threat, a potential challenge from one of his own. Conservative firebrand, Joe Walsh, a Tea Party congressman now a talk radio host and no stranger to controversy and incendiary rhetoric.
(…)
STEPHANOPOULOS: And Joe Walsh joins us now. Good morning.
JOE WALSH: Hey, George. Good to be with you.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Have you reached a decision.
WALSH: Yes, and it's great to be with you. I'm going to run for president and I'm happy to be on your show announcing my candidacy. George, no surprise. We’ve got a guy in the White House who's unfit, completely unfit to be president. And it stuns me that nobody stepped up, nobody in the Republican Party stepped up, because I'll tell you what, George, everybody believes in the Republican Party, everybody believes he's unfit.
STEPHANOPOULOS: You say that, everybody believes he's unfit. But one thing that the White House points and the President points to often is just about every poll shows more than 80 percent support for the President.
WALSH: They don’t have an alternative.
(…)
STEPHANOPOULOS: There's actually is another challenger to President Trump, as you know, from inside the party, William Weld. He said this tweet this week where he said this, “Donald Trump is a clear and present danger to our country to the globe and to himself.” And this is what got everybody’s attention “#AmericaDeservesBetter. #25thamendment”. You talk about the President being unfit. Should the 25th Amendment be invoked?
WALSH: It should be looked at.
(…)
STEPHANOPOULOS: You said you want to make the case against the President. The question is, are you the best messenger? You said you want to make a moral case against the President. Here’s what the Washington Examiner, conservative newspaper, said in response to your potential candidacy this week.
“There is the matter of his history of being Trumpier than Trump… he has made a living on peddling the same sort of demagoguery, conspiracy-mongering, and right-wing bomb-throwing for which he now condemns the President.” Your response?
WALSH: I helped create Trump. And George, that's not an easy thing to say.
(…)
STEPHANOPOULOS: You did provide aid and comfort for the kind of things he was saying. You mentioned Obama. You called President Obama a Muslim, an enemy, a traitor, and you often spoke out on racial themes. Want to show a couple of tweets that you had. Right there, number one, “we lowered the bar for Obama, he was held to a lower standard because he was black”. That was just in 2017. And then a few months after that, not just President Obama. “Senator Kamala Harris said something really dumb. Meh. If you're black and a woman you can say dumb things. Lowered the bar.”
That is kind of textbook racial and sexism.
WALSH: Well. Again, the beauty of what President Trump has done is, George, he's made me reflect on some of the things I’ve said in the past.
(…)
STEPHANOPOULOS: What's the conservative case? Set aside the personal differences you have with President Trump, what's the conservative case for why President Trump should be replaced?
WALSH: He's incompetent. He has no freaking clue what he's doing.
(…)
9:42:40 a.m.
MATTHEW DOWD: I think that Joe Walsh-- the odds of him being able to beat Donald Trump in the Republican primary--
STEPHANOPOULOS: But can he wound him, is the question.
DOWD: So I think the question is, so should someone make a principled argument saying this is what conservativism means, this is what the Republican Party, that I understand to mean, and contrast it to Donald Trump is important? Yes.
(…)
