Big Republican Names Throw Wrench into 2020 Election with Anti-Trump Announcements
A report in The New York Times that multiple big-name Republicans are lining up against President Donald Trump was ridiculed by Trump supporters on Saturday.
The Times report claimed that “growing numbers of prominent Republicans are debating how far to go in revealing that they won’t back his re-election — or might even vote for Joseph R. Biden Jr., the presumptive Democratic nominee.”
The newspaper then went on to list Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah, former President George W. Bush, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Cindy McCain, the widow of Sen. John McCain of Arizona, as among those opposed to Trump.
The Times said former House speakers Paul Ryan and John Boehner would not comment about their positions, and cited Lisa Murkowski of Alaska as an example of a Republican senator who is cool to Trump, at best.
Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani shrugged off the report during an appearance on “Sunday Morning Futures,” according to Fox News.
“No kidding,” he told host Maria Bartiromo when she told Giuliani about the report and mentioned Romney’s name. “How come I’m not shocked by that?”
“Romney has had a chip on his shoulder from the day he gave a speech four years ago that Trump would take us to war or destroy the country or — I mean, go back and look at the predictions. They turned out to all be wrong. He’s voted against everything he can to try to stop his agenda. I know Mitt. And I know the Bushes. I have a different reaction to the two of them. Mitt doesn’t know what he believes,” Giuliani said.
As for Jeb and George Bush, he said, “The Bushes are hurt. They’re internally hurt.”
“And my view is, get over it. The reality is, this country is bigger than your personal anger at Trump because he, you know, he took off after Jeb, and he ruined him. He absolutely ruined him,” Giuliani said, referring to the 2016 Republican presidential primaries, when Trump mocked Jeb Bush as “low energy Jeb.”
“But you don’t have to let him ruin you, if you just get up and start making rational decisions now,” Giuliani said. “But there’s a personal anger. There’s a personal anger that’s affecting their decisions.”
He said the nation needs the Bushes to rise above petty vendettas.
“And I’m very disappointed in them, because the difference between Trump and Biden is so palpable for anyone who has Republican values,” Giuliani said. “If what you really believed in all your life, as you ran on, is low taxes, an emphasis on law and order, a strong foreign policy — maybe not exactly yours, but certainly a strong one — and not all this crazy anarchist views all around Biden. And they’re going to support a man who is mentally incompetent, and they know it.
“So, you have got to get — I appeal to the Bush family, get over your anger and think about the country.”
A representative of George Bush said in a statement Saturday that the Times report was false.
“This is completely made up,” the representative told The Texas Tribune. “He is retired from presidential politics and has not indicated how he will vote.”
In an email to @texastribune’s @ragajus, George W. Bush spox @kyfredchicken denies @nytimes report: “This is completely made up. He is retired from presidential politics and has not indicated how he will vote.” https://t.co/tWelJOqmhv https://t.co/RiHpmkfa5Z
— Evan Smith (@evanasmith) June 7, 2020
Former Secretary of State Colin Powell, characterized by CNN as “the latest member of the Republican Party’s old guard to announce that he will not be voting for President Trump,” said Sunday on the network’s “State of the Union” that he will support Biden.
“I’m very close to Joe Biden in a social matter and in a political matter,” Powell said. “I’ve worked with him for 35, 40 years. And he is now the candidate and I will be voting for him.”
Trump fired back at Powell on Twitter.
Colin Powell was a pathetic interview today on Fake News CNN. In his time, he was weak & gave away everything to everybody – so bad for the USA. Also got the “weapons of mass destruction” totally wrong, and you know what that mistake cost us? Sad! Only negative questions asked.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 8, 2020
Colin Powell, a real stiff who was very responsible for getting us into the disastrous Middle East Wars, just announced he will be voting for another stiff, Sleepy Joe Biden. Didn’t Powell say that Iraq had “weapons of mass destruction?” They didn’t, but off we went to WAR!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 7, 2020
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, during an appearance on Fox News’ “Fox & Friends Weekend” on Sunday, said Republicans must support their candidate.
“If you have people who were nominated and, in the case of President Bush, actually elected to be president by Republicans, and they will no longer support the Republican nominee, who went through the process and got elected, then I’m going to be not just unhappy, I’m going to be livid,” he said.
“We didn’t all agree on some of the policies of Bush or McCain or Romney, but when it came down to it, we had a choice,” Huckabee said. “We could choose a far-left liberal or we could choose somebody that was closer to our views.”
Huckabee said Trump has delivered on key Republican issues.
“This president is more pro-life than we’ve ever had, period. He’s more pro-Israel. He has deregulated so much government so that the businesses of America can thrive and they have until this COVID stuff happened,” Huckabee said.
“This is a president who has stood up to the globalists, stood up to the unfair trade practices, brought back American jobs, has done more for minorities than any president in my lifetime in actually helping people to have good, decent jobs and a future,” he said.
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