Although the opposition is continuously pushed to the fringes, President Donald Trump continues to face some challenges from within the Republican Party. One of those challengers is former Congressman Joe Walsh, who has been running a long-shot presidential campaign against Trump ahead of his formal nomination as the GOP’s 2020 presidential candidate. Now that the Republican Party has moved to exclude his campaign to the point of cancelling primary elections entirely in many states across the country, Walsh has announced a protest for this week at the headquarters of the Republican National Committee (RNC), which is located in Washington, D.C.
Besides the refusal to even present his name to Republicans for a primary election, RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel has apparently refused to meet with Walsh to discuss the situation. Considering McDaniel’s avid public Trump support, this refusal would not be surprising.
Now, on Wednesday, Walsh said:
‘Trump and the RNC are rigging this election! So tomorrow morning — joined by our grassroots supporters — I’ll be visiting the RNC headquarters to hold @GOPChairwoman accountable for this repulsive affront to the voters and our democracy.’
Trump and the RNC are rigging this election!
So tomorrow morning — joined by our grassroots supporters — I'll be visiting the RNC headquarters to hold @GOPChairwoman accountable for this repulsive affront to the voters and our democracy. Join us! https://t.co/6R34IkKrcQ pic.twitter.com/zOxjY4Choc
— Joe Walsh (@WalshFreedom) January 16, 2020
In her own defense of Walsh and opposition to McDaniel and the GOP shutting him out, Walsh’s presidential campaign manager Lucy Caldwell cited his longtime membership in the Republican Party and his time in Congress. Walsh was originally elected as part of the far-right, so-called Tea Party surge against then-President Barack Obama in 2010, and he lost his seat after the redistricting following that year’s census.
Caldwell said:
‘Refusing to meet with a presidential candidate who is not only a lifelong Republican but also a former member of Congress is a new low, even for this iteration of the GOP. We hope Ronna and others on the RNC staff, many of whom members our team used to work hand-in-hand with, will come to their senses and show common decency not only to Congressman Walsh, but by extension, to the American public.’
RNC spokeswoman Cassie Smedile has defended the decision to cancel primary elections, insisting that there’s just not a viable path for candidates besides Trump.
She commented:
‘This person in the White House is incredibly popular and our party writ large likes where we’re heading in this country. It’s not that people are not allowed to do it, it’s just, do you have a viable path to really make a run for it and the data does not bear that out.’
According to polling, most Republicans have appeared ready to continue on with Trump, belligerent racism and all. In the most recent poll of the Republican presidential primary field cataloged by RealClearPolitics, Walsh only got one percent of the support. His fellow Trump challenger, former Massachusetts Governor Bill Weld, only got two percent, while Trump had the stated support of 85 percent of the poll respondents. According to Gallup, about 89 percent of Republicans currently approve of the job that Trump is doing in office, although he claims that the number is higher, for some reason. He has cited figures of 94 and 95 percent without ever actually tying them to a source.
And his re-election campaign has remained aggressive the entire time.
