Joe Walsh and the secret doubts of Trump supporters

Here's why a recovering Trump supporter like Joe Walsh might be uniquely capable of weakening the president

Joe Walsh.
(Image credit: Illustrated | Spencer Platt/Getty Images joewalsh.org/Handout via REUTERS, Aerial3/iStock, CreepyCube/iStock)

Two Republicans are challenging President Trump for his party's presidential nomination in 2020. The first, former Gov. Bill Weld (R-Mass.), is genteel and moderate. The second, former Rep. Joe Walsh (R-Ill.), is brash and conservative.

Walsh is the perfect contrast with Trump, precisely because he's so similar. Walsh, like Trump, has only two years of political experience. Walsh, like Trump, is an avid Twitter user. His specialty, like Trump's, is talking into microphones (Walsh is a radio talk-show host). Walsh, like Trump, has said racist things. Walsh, like Trump, spread conspiracy theories about Barack Obama's birth and religion. Walsh, unlike Trump, regrets them. In a recent New York Times op-ed, Walsh wrote: "In Mr. Trump, I see the worst and ugliest iteration of views I expressed for the better part of a decade." Walsh, unlike Trump, isn't Trump.

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Windsor Mann

Windsor Mann is the editor of The Quotable Hitchens: From Alcohol to Zionism.