Politics
Ex-Illinois Congressman Joe Walsh Tells Moderate Republicans in Milwaukee to Stand Up to ‘Jackass’ Trump
Video: Joe Walsh, a former Republican congressman from Illinois, calls on Republicans to vote against Donald Trump, during a July 17, 2024, gathering in Milwaukee near the site of the RNC. (Michael Izquierdo / WTTW News)
While Republican delegates came to Milwaukee this week to certify former President Donald Trump as the party’s presidential nominee, not all GOP members in the city are on board.
A group of anti-Trump Republicans known as “Principals First” held an event at the historic Pabst Brewery Wednesday in the shadow of the Fiserv Forum where the Republican National Convention remains ongoing.
Among the “Never Trumpers” who spoke was former Illinois Republican congressman and longtime Trump critic Joe Walsh, who called on attendees to vote for any Democratic candidate who can keep the former president from a second term in office.
“You either believe, in this moment, that he is a threat to our democracy or you don’t,” Walsh, a former 2020 presidential candidate himself, said. “Stop there. There’s nothing else to speak about.”
The “Principals First” group launched in 2019 and described itself as “principled Americans on the right and center-right who were concerned about the health of American democracy.”
Walsh, a member of the Tea Party movement who said he voted for Trump in 2016, called the former president a “jackass” and a “dictator” and said the traditional Republican Party is “gone.”
“Those of you who believe in democracy and you believe in the rule of law and you believe in the Constitution and you believe in freedom and limited government, we’re going somewhere else,” Walsh said. “Something else is coming after this election. This party is done.”
Walsh participated in the forum alongside conservative commentator Charlie Sykes as the pair decried the “radical extremism” they said has taken over the GOP.
“We are in uncharted territory,” Sykes said, “where the media ecosystem rewards the most extreme voices. It rewards outrage. Donald Trump is a creature of a transformed media information environment. That’s not going away any time soon.”
