Arizona state House Speaker Rusty Bowers (R) on Sunday said he’ll never vote for former President Trump again, a reversal of earlier claims that he’d back Trump in a match-up against President Biden.
“I’ll never vote for him, but I won’t have to. Because I think America’s tired and there’s some absolutely forceful, qualified, morally defensible and upright people, and that’s what I want. That’s what I want in my party and that’s what I want to see,” Bowers told moderator Jonathan Karl during an interview on ABC’s “This Week.”
The Arizona lawmaker called Trump a “demagogue” who maintains hold on his base through “thuggery and intimidation.”
“I have thought, at times, someone born how he was, raised how he was — he has no idea what a hard life is. And what people have to go through in real — in the real world. He has no idea what courage is,” Bowers said.
Bowers’s comments were a reversal of his remarks in June, when he said he’d support the former president in a rematch of the 2020 election.
“If he is the nominee, if he was up against Biden, I’d vote for him again. Simply because what he did the first time, before COVID, was so good for the county. In my view it was,” Bowers told The Associated Press before testifying in June to the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attacks on the U.S. Capitol.
Testifying before the House panel, Bowers rejected the former president’s claims that the two men had discussed a rigged 2020 presidential election in Arizona.
Bowers said members of his party called him a “traitor” after his appearance before the committee. Trump lambasted the lawmaker as a “coward.”
Bowers on Sunday said he hoped Trump would never return to a position of power.
“I would certainly hope not. I certainly don’t trust that authority that he would exercise.”
Bowers is running for Arizona’s state Senate in this year’s midterms, and Trump has endorsed his challenger, David Farnsworth.
Mister_Snrub on July 31st, 2022 at 22:04 UTC »
Trump lost his support, not because of the stuff he did, but because he was too stupid to pull it off.
They all want the fascism, and they were willing to wait a little longer to get it. Trump was a means to an end for for the people who have been working on this project for decades. The problem with Trump is that while he was willing to say things out loud that made the rest of them blush, he was never a believer in any of his own bullshit.
It was always a grift for Trump. He put himself ahead of the movement. Just like all the Johnny-come-lately members of his administration who are suddenly willing to testify, more and more will ditch Trump. He ruined it for all of them. They‘ll all be happy to support DeSantis, who is potentially worse, but a true believer, and not nearly as stupid.
Talis_solepsis on July 31st, 2022 at 20:52 UTC »
The rage over on r/conservative is pretty much what you'd expect. For a group that prides itself on being free thinking, unlike the "sheeple libs", they really do have a group think approach to anyone who doesn't bow to the great cheeto god
Hoobs88 on July 31st, 2022 at 20:27 UTC »
Glad to see any reversal of support. But… as is common with GOP they only change when it impacts them directly. Getting called a coward probably pissed him off.