Former GOP Congressman Joe Walsh announces primary challenge, says he regrets helping 'create' Trump

(Image credit: Screenshot/ABC)

President Trump apparently better invest in a facemask soon because former Rep. Joe Walsh (R-Ill.) is officially challenging him in the Republican primary.

Walsh, who recently said somebody needs to punch Trump "in the face every single day," unveiled his campaign on Sunday during an appearance on ABC's This Week.

"We've got a guy in the White House who is unfit, completely unfit to be president, and it stuns me that nobody stepped up, nobody in the Republican Party stepped up," he told host George Stephanopoulos. "Because I'll tell you what, George, everybody believes in the Republican Party, everybody believes that he's unfit."

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Walsh was also self-critical during the interview, acknowledging that he regrets helping "create" Trump. "The personal, ugly politics. I regret that," Walsh said. "And I'm sorry for that. And now we've got a guy in the White House, that's all he does." Walsh is reportedly going to attack Trump from the right on moral grounds.

He also announced the launch of his campaign on Twitter, joining former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld as Trump's GOP challengers. Tim O'Donnell

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Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.