Republican Warns His Party To 'Wake The Hell Up' To Dangers Of Trump

Former Republican Representative Joe Walsh had some harsh words for his Party during a recent appearance on MSNBC. Walsh said that the Party needs to "wake the hell up" about what they've become because of Donald Trump, and he even admitted that he wouldn't be able to win an election today because of how extreme the Party has become. He's not wrong, and that's saying a lot since Walsh was one of the original members of the Tea Party. Farron Cousins explains what's happening.

Listen to our videos in an audio format by subscribing to our podcast

Don't forget to like, comment, and share! And subscribe to stay connected!

Connect with Farron on Twitter

*This transcript was auto-generated. Please excuse any typos.

During a segment on M-S-N-B-C, this past weekend, former Tea Party Republican representative Joe Walsh, who for the record, has definitely been an advocate of the anti-Trump Republican movement. But Mr. Walsh, who once hung out on the fringes of the Republican party, stated that with today's Republican, uh, party becoming as extreme as it is, there's no way he would be able to win an election. Now, Mr. Walsh was placed alongside GOP strategist Rena Shaw for this segment. And Shaw had this to say, she said that the GOP needs to quote, get better people running to halt the spread of MAGA Republicans. And of course, the former President Walsh jumped in and said this, wake the hell up America. I love Rena, but it's too late. Wake the hell up America. This is the Republican party. I am a hardcore conservative, but I opposed Trump. I could never, ever get elected as a Republican again.

This is what this party is. It is not going to change. It must be defeated. End of story. Now usually I would not agree with somebody like Joe Walsh and you know, but he's, he's right. He's a hundred percent right. I don't agree with him on policy, don't get me wrong. He says he is still a hardcore conservative, but he's right. The takeover of the Republican Party is complete. There is no saving this new monster that the Republican party has become. If you wanted to save it, you'd have to get in a time machine and go back, you know, 30 years, 40 years, I think at this point, to really save the Republican party because their problems, as we've all pointed out so many times in recent years, their problems did not originate with Donald Trump. Hell, Joe Walsh himself is responsible for the current incarnation of the Republican Party.

As I mentioned, Walsh is a former member of the Tea Party. That far right. Extremist movement that was, you know, we're getting taxed too much. We gotta cut taxes only for the wealthy elite though. Like, that's you, you put us on this path, dude, actually you didn't put us there. You just continued us on it. Instead of pulling the Republican party back to being, Hey, every now and then, maybe you do something good, but you haven't done anything good in 40 years. In the 40 years that I have been on this planet, through every Republican administration and every Republican controlled, uh, house and Senate, what have we gotten on the national level? We've gotten tax cuts for the wealthy.

That's it. That's all the Republicans at the national level have done in my lifetime. Their only significant pieces of legislation have been to cut taxes for the wealthy elite. Going back to Reagan, continued under HW Bush continued under w Bush continued under Donald Trump. Every time they get in power, the first thing they do is they cut taxes for the wealthy Elite. Well, I mean, I can't really say that's the only thing they've done because they've also given us things like the Patriot Act, that has a, basically allowed the United States government to spy on any one of us that they choose. So, you know, we've gotten domestic spying programs from Republicans and tax cuts. Do those sound like things you wanna write home about? Do those sound like things that are indicative of a healthy and normally functioning Republican party? No, they don't. And all of that was long before Donald Trump, back when he still professed to be a Democrat.

And yes, Donald Trump came along and he made the racism and the xenophobia, uh, out in the open. Like he put it out in the open and he embraced it. No longer did Republicans have to say things only behind closed doors. They could come out and say it in a rally and get a raucous applause from it. Trump did make the Republican party more extreme, but it was only because the party was already so extreme that somebody like Trump was able to come along and take it over. And that's the part that people like Joe Walsh and Rena Shaw always forget to mention, you know, these never Trump Republicans wanna pretend that everything before Donald Trump was fine. No, it wasn't.