Joe Walsh's Trump primary bid is a bet fellow Republicans secretly agree Trump is 'nuts' and bad at his job

(Image credit: Screenshot/YouTub/ABC News)

last updated 26 August 2019

Former Rep. Joe Walsh (R-Ill.), now a conservative talk radio host, announced Sunday that he's challenging President Trump for the 2020 Republican nomination. People are skeptical of his motives but mostly his chances — New York Magazine called it a "beyond-long-shot primary bid," a "quixotic mission" undertaken with "Bill Kristol, a onetime mighty Republican figure who has become an avatar of GOP Establishment impotence in the face of Trump's party takeover." Another prominent #NeverTrump conservative, George Conway, is also on board, figuratively if not officially.

Trump's campaign doesn't seem very concerned about Walsh's bid. "Whatever," communications director Tim Murtaugh told ABC News.

Walsh told ABC News his campaign's big gamble "is that there are a lot of Republicans who feel like I do," that Trump is "nuts, he's erratic, he's cruel, he stokes bigotry, he's incompetent," and "he's a child," and they're also "sick of this guy's tantrum." He added that he thinks his campaign "will catch on like wildfire." "And if you're wrong?" host George Stephanopoulos asked. "If I'm wrong, it was the right fight, because somebody had to do this."

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It's true that Walsh "possesses the conservative bona fides" and grit Trump's other GOP challenger, former Gov. William Weld (Mass.), lacks, and "some previous primary candidates have found some success against weak incumbents; think Ronald Reagan in 1976 or Pat Buchanan in 1992," New York adds. "The problem for Walsh — or any other conservative challenger — is that Trump remains extremely popular with GOP voters." Walsh bets the polls are wrong — an idea Trump supporters, at least, can respect.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.

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