Former Tea Party Rep. Joe Walsh ends GOP challenge to Trump: 'Any Democrat would be better'

Joe Walsh may be ending his challenge to President Trump, but his 2020 battle is far from over.

Walsh, a former Republican congressmember from South Carolina, ended his GOP primary challenge to Trump on Friday morning after writing an op-ed that deemed his party a "cult." He'll now focus on convincing Democrats, Independents, and Republicans that "any Democrat would be better than Trump in the White House," he told CNN in an interview.

When asked Friday on CNN if he would support the Democratic nominee this fall, Walsh made it very clear that he would back "any Democrat." That even applies to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Walsh affirmed, saying "I would rather have a socialist in the White House than a dictator." Walsh didn't have a particular favorite candidate to endorse yet.

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Walsh also called the Republican party a "cult" during the interview, like he did in his Thursday Washington Post op-ed. While campaigning so far, Walsh said he found that conservative media and Republican voters "have been fed nothing but lies and mistruths about President Trump, and that they can't be gotten back."