(CNN) Conservative radio host and former Illinois US Rep. Joe Walsh will challenge President Donald Trump for the Republican presidential nomination in 2020, he announced Sunday.

"I'm going to run for president," Walsh said on ABC's "This Week," also telling host George Stephanopoulos, "I'm going to do whatever I can. I don't want him (Trump) to win. The country cannot afford to have him win. If I'm not successful, I'm not voting for him."

Walsh had said Thursday that he was "strongly, strongly considering" entering the race.

"I'm not trying to be cute or coy. I've told you before -- if somebody's going to get in there and go after him ... it's got to be done soon," Walsh told CNN's John Berman on "New Day." "You're running out of time. But more importantly, these are not conventional times. Look at the guy in the White House. These are urgent times."

On Sunday, Walsh called Trump "nuts," "erratic," "cruel" and "incompetent." </s> Conservative firebrand former Illinois Rep. Joe Walsh announced Sunday with ABC News Chief Anchor George Stephanopoulos on ABC's "This Week" that he's launching a long-shot Republican presidential primary challenge against President Donald Trump "I'm going to run for president," Walsh told Stephanopoulos in an exclusive interview.When Stephanopoulos pointed out the massive uphill climb Walsh has in front of him in the primary thanks to Trump's overwhelmingly high approval rating within the party, the controversial former congressman argued that conservatives don't have an alternative to the president."I'm running because he's unfit; somebody needs to step up and there needs to be an alternative. The country is sick of this guy's tantrum -- he's a child," Walsh said.The former Illinois congressman-turned-radio host was once a fervent Trump supporter who's become a fierce critic of the president. Walsh is just the second Republican to jump into the primary behind former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld , who announced back in April but has yet to gain serious traction Trump campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh told ABC News a dismissive one-word response to Walsh jumping into the race: "Whatever."and he is instead focused on offering GOP voters an alternative vision for the party.While he has argued that he plans to make the moral case for his candidacy, the former Tea Party congressman has a history filled with incendiary and controversial statements ranging from using racist slurs on Twitter to promoting falsehoods around former President Barack Obama's birth certificate and that he's Muslim.Walsh only served one term in Congress, but his candidacy does perhaps bring a more current figure from conservative circles into the long-shot picture compared to Weld, who last held public office over 20 years ago. Walsh's nationally syndicated radio show and large online following arguably kept him more relevant.The Trump administration's latest actions around trade and the economy along with what Walsh's team calls an "incredible reaction" and flood of support to an op-ed Walsh published in the New York Times last week is what pushed the conservative radio host to jump into the race.Walsh's team says he is set to travel to and spend "a lot of time" in the key primary states of Iowa and New Hampshire in the coming weeks. </s> A former Republican Congressman says he’ll launch a primary challenge to US President Donald Trump in 2020. Joe Walsh is now the second candidate to unveil a challenge to President Trump from within his own party, as VOA’s Elizabeth Cherneff tells us in this report </s> A second person has mounted a challenge to US President Donald Trump for the Republican Party's presidential nomination in 2020.

Joe Walsh, a former congressman for the state of Illinois and radio talk show host, announced his bid on Sunday, saying the incumbent president of the United States was unfit for office and must be denied a second term.

"He's nuts. He's erratic. He's cruel. He stokes bigotry. He's incompetent. He doesn't know what he's doing," Walsh told national television ABC's This Week.

The 57-year-old portrayed himself as a legitimate alternative in a party where he said many are opposed to Trump but are "scared to death" of saying so publicly.

"He's a bully and he's a coward and somebody needs to call him out," Walsh said.

"The bet ... of my campaign is that there are a lot of Republicans that feel like I do. They're afraid to come forward."

Asked to respond to Walsh's criticism of the president and decision to run, a spokesman for Trump replied: "Whatever."

The Republican National Committee, which is responsible for overseeing party processes such as primaries, dismissed Walsh's announcement.

The party has already combined operations with Trump's re-election campaign, including holding joint events.

"President Trump enjoys unprecedented support among Republicans. He has already delivered a long list of incredible accomplishments for conservatives and the country. Republicans are firmly behind the president and any effort to challenge him in a primary is bound to go absolutely nowhere," said Republican Party Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel.

Walsh won a House of Representatives seat from Illinois as a candidate of the Republican Party's fiscally-conservative Tea Party movement in 2010, but he was defeated by Democrat Tammy Duckworth in his 2012 reelection bid.

After leaving Congress, he became a radio talk show host in the city of Chicago.

Bill Weld, a former Massachusetts governor, had been the only Republican trying to unseat Trump.

"I think that is terrific," he said. "It's going to be a more robust conversation."

So far, neither Walsh nor Weld is given much chance of wresting the nomination from the incumbent.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted on August 19 and 20 showed that 87 percent of Republicans approve of Trump's performance in office.

The RealClearPolitics website shows Trump with an overwhelming poll lead of 72 points over Weld. </s> US President Donald Trump will face a primary challenge ahead of the fall 2020 elections from a former one-term congressman, the ex-lawmaker announced on Sunday, Anadolu reports.

Making the announcement on U.S. television network ABC, Joe Walsh, former Republican congressman for the Midwestern state of Illinois, accused Trump of incompetence, adding that he “lies virtually every time he opens his mouth” and “stokes bigotry.”

“Friends, I’m in. We can’t take four more years of Donald Trump. And that’s why I’m running for President,” Walsh also said on Twitter.

READ: Trump’s racism and his campaign for a second term

After serving one term in Congress in 2011-2013, Walsh became a conservative radio talk show host.

Most political analysts see Walsh having little chance against Trump, who enjoys support among Republican voters nationwide of some 80%.

This April former Massachusetts Governor Bill Weld announced his own primary challenge to Trump, but so far has received little support.

The next US presidential election is set for Nov. 3, 2020. </s> AP — Joe Walsh, a former Illinois congressman and Tea Party favorite turned radio talk show host, announced a challenge Sunday to US President Donald Trump for the Republican nomination in 2020, saying the incumbent is unfit for office and must be denied a second term.

“He’s nuts. He’s erratic. He’s cruel. He stokes bigotry. He’s incompetent. He doesn’t know what he’s doing,” Walsh told ABC’s “This Week.” The longshot portrayed himself as a legitimate alternative in party, where he said many are opposed to Trump, but are “scared to death” of saying so publicly.

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Polls shows Trump is backed by most Republican voters, and the lone rival already in the race is former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld, the 2016 Libertarian Party vice presidential nominee who is regarded as fiscally conservative and socially liberal.

Undeterred from pressing ahead with his candidacy, Walsh said, “I think this thing… will catch on like wildfire.” The former Trump booster added: “I’m a conservative. And I think there’s a decent chance to present to Republican voters a conservative without all the baggage.”

Walsh narrowly won a House seat from suburban Chicago in the 2010 Tea Party wave, but lost a 2012 reelection bid, and has since hosted a radio talk show. He has a history of inflammatory statements regarding Muslims and others and declared just before the 2016 election that if Trump lost, “I’m grabbing my musket.”

But he has since soured on Trump, criticizing the president over growth of the federal deficit and writing in a New York Times column that the president was “a racial arsonist who encourages bigotry and xenophobia to rouse his base.”

The road ahead for any Republican primary challenger will be difficult.

In recent months, Trump’s allies have taken over state parties that control primary elections in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and elsewhere. State party leaders sometimes pay lip service to the notion that they would welcome a primary challenger, as their state party rules usually require, but they are already working to ensure Trump’s reelection.

South Carolina Republicans have gone so far as to discuss canceling their state’s GOP primary altogether if a legitimate primary challenge emerges to eliminate the threat.

At the same time, polling consistently shows that Trump has the solid backing of an overwhelming majority of Republican voters. An Associated Press-NORC poll conducted this month found that 78 percent of Republicans approve of Trump’s job performance. That number has been hovering around 80% even as repeated scandals have rocked his presidency.

“Look, this isn’t easy to do…. I’m opening up my life to tweets and attacks. Everything I’ve said and tweeted now, Trump’s going to go after, and his bullies are going to go after,” Walsh said.

Asked whether he was prepared for that, Walsh replied: “Yes, I’m ready for it.”

Weld, in an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” said he was “thrilled” that Walsh was in the race and that Mark Sanford, a former South Carolina governor and congressman, was considering joining them, leading to a “more robust conversation.”

“Who knows? The networks might even cover Republican primary debates,” Weld said.

Walsh, 57, rode a wave of anti-then president Barack Obama sentiment to a 300-vote victory over a Democratic incumbent in the 2010 election. He made a name for himself in Washington as a cable news fixture who was highly disparaging of Obama.

Walsh was criticized for saying that the Democratic Party’s “game” is to make Latinos dependent on government just like “they got African Americans dependent upon government.” At another point, he said radical Muslims are in the US “trying to kill Americans every week,” including in Chicago’s suburbs.

He lost his 2012 reelection bid by more than 20,000 votes to Democrat Tammy Duckworth, who was elected to the US Senate four years later.

Walsh told Obama to “watch out” on Twitter in July 2016 after five police officers were killed in Dallas. Just days before Trump’s 2016 win over Hillary Clinton, Walsh tweeted: “On November 8th, I’m voting for Trump. On November 9th, if Trump loses, I’m grabbing my musket. You in?” Walsh later said on Twitter that he was referring to “acts of civil disobedience.”

On Sunday, Walsh said he apologized for past divisive comments.

“I helped create Trump. There’s no doubt about that, the personal, ugly politics. I regret that. And I’m sorry for that,” he said. </s> WASHINGTON — Joe Walsh, a former Illinois congressman ad tea party favorite turned radio talk show host, announced a longshot challenge Sunday to President Donald Trump for the Republican nomination in 2020, saying the incumbent is “completely unfit” for office and must be denied a second term.

"Somebody needs to step up and there needs to be an alternative" among Republicans, Walsh told ABC's "This Week," adding that "the country is sick of this guy's tantrum. He's a child. ... He lies every time he opens his mouth."

Already in the race is former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld.

Walsh narrowly won a House seat from suburban Chicago in the 2010 tea party wave but lost a 2012 reelection bid and has since hosted a radio talk show. He has a history of inflammatory statements regarding Muslims and others and declared just before the 2016 election that if Trump lost, "I'm grabbing my musket."

But he has since soured on Trump, criticizing the president in a recent New York Times column over growth of the federal deficit and calling him "a racial arsonist who encourages bigotry and xenophobia to rouse his base."

Walsh promises to contest Trump from the right as opposed to Weld, who is regarded as fiscally conservative but socially liberal. Weld was the 2016 Libertarian Party vice presidential nominee.

The road ahead for any Republican primary challenger will certainly be difficult.

In recent months, Trump's allies have taken over state parties that control primary elections in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and elsewhere. State party leaders sometimes pay lip service to the notion that they would welcome a primary challenger, as their state party rules usually require, but they are already working to ensure Trump's reelection.

South Carolina Republicans have gone so far as to discuss canceling their state's GOP primary altogether if a legitimate primary challenge emerges to eliminate the threat.

At the same time, polling consistently shows that Trump has the solid backing of an overwhelming majority of Republican voters. An Associated Press-NORC poll conducted this month found that 78% of Republicans approve of Trump's job performance. That number has been hovering around 80% even as repeated scandals have rocked his presidency.

"Look, this isn't easy to do. ... I'm opening up my life to tweets and attacks. Everything I've said and tweeted now, Trump's going to go after, and his bullies are going to go after," Walsh told ABC.

Asked whether he was prepared for that, Walsh replied: "Yes, I'm ready for it."

Walsh, 57, rode a wave of anti-President Barack Obama sentiment to a 300-vote victory over a Democratic incumbent in the 2010 election. He made a name for himself in Washington as a cable news fixture who was highly disparaging of Obama.

Walsh was criticized for saying that the Democratic Party's "game" is to make Latinos dependent on government just like "they got African Americans dependent upon government." At another point, he said radical Muslims are in the U.S. "trying to kill Americans every week," including in Chicago's suburbs.

He lost his 2012 reelection bid by more than 20,000 votes to Democrat Tammy Duckworth, who was elected to the U.S. Senate four years later.

Walsh told Obama to "watch out" on Twitter in July 2016 after five police officers were killed in Dallas. Just days before Trump's 2016 win over Hillary Clinton, Walsh tweeted: "On November 8th, I'm voting for Trump. On November 9th, if Trump loses, I'm grabbing my musket. You in?" Walsh later said on Twitter that he was referring to "acts of civil disobedience."

Walsh wrote in his New York Times column that "In Mr. Trump, I see the worst and ugliest iteration of views I expressed for the better part of a decade."

"On more than one occasion, I questioned Mr. Obama's truthfulness about his religion," Walsh wrote. "At times, I expressed hate for my political opponents. We now see where this can lead. There's no place in our politics for personal attacks like that, and I regret making them."

Walsh said his 2016 vote for Trump was actually against Clinton and faulted Trump for his unwillingness to confront Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"He encouraged Russian interference in the 2016 election, and he refuses to take foreign threats seriously as we enter the 2020 election. That's reckless," Walsh wrote. "For three years, he has been at war with our federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies, as he embraces tyrants abroad and embarrasses our allies. That's un-American." </s> WASHINGTON, Aug 25 — Joe Walsh, a conservative former US congressman turned talk show host, today became the second Republican to challenge President Donald Trump for the party’s 2020 White House nomination.

Walsh criticised Trump, who has strong support among Republicans, as a bully who is unfit for office as he announced his long-shot bid.

“I’m running because he’s unfit,” Walsh, 57, told ABC’s This Week programme. “Somebody needs to step up.”

“He’s a bully and he’s a coward and somebody needs to call him out,” Walsh said. “The bet ... of my campaign is that there are a lot of Republicans that feel like I do. They’re afraid to come forward.”

Asked to respond to Walsh’s criticism of the president and decision to run, Trump’s spokesman replied, “Whatever.”

Walsh won a House of Representatives seat from Illinois as a candidate of the Republican Party’s fiscally conservative Tea Party movement in 2010, but he was defeated by Democrat Tammy Duckworth in his 2012 re-election bid. After leaving Congress, he became a Chicago-area radio talk show host.

William Weld, a former Massachusetts governor, had been the only Republican trying to unseat Trump but his candidacy has so far failed to gain traction.

Former US Representative and South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford said in July he was considering a primary challenge because of the rising federal debt.

Weld, appearing on NBC’s Meet the Press today, said he welcomed Wash’s entry into the race and would welcome Sanford as well.

“It can only contribute to more robust dialogue and that will be good for the country,” he said. “We need to assemble rational people. Sure, a crazed president makes the stock market go down, but that doesn’t mean we have to like it.”

Any Republican challenger will face a formidable re-election effort mounted by Trump, who has consolidated his grip on the party’s national and state machinery. A Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted August 19-20 showed 87 per cent of Republicans approve of his performance in office.

Walsh said he was undeterred. “I think this thing... will catch on like wildfire,” he said. — Reuters </s> SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Conservative radio host and former Illinois U.S. Rep. Joe Walsh will challenge President Donald Trump for the Republican presidential nomination in 2020, he announced Sunday, Aug. 25.

“I’m going to run for president,” Walsh said on ABC’s “This Week,” also telling host George Stephanopoulos, “I’m going to do whatever I can. I don’t want him (President Trump) to win. The country cannot afford to have him win. If I’m not successful, I’m not voting for him.”

Walsh had said Thursday he was “strongly, strongly considering” entering the race.

“I’m not trying to be cute or coy,” Walsh told CNN’s John Berman on “New Day.” “I’ve told you before — if somebody’s going to get in there and go after him … it’s got to be done soon. You’re running out of time. But more importantly, these are not conventional times. Look at the guy in the White House. These are urgent times.”

Walsh, who was elected to Congress with support from the Tea Party movement, has a history of making controversial comments, including some about former President Barack Obama.

In 2016, he accused Obama of hating Israel, and pushed the false conspiracy theory that Obama is Muslim. He was also accused that year of inciting violence against Obama in the wake of a deadly sniper attack on Dallas police.

A few years earlier, in a 2011 interview, he suggested that Obama was only elected because he was “a black man who was articulate.” Walsh was also once kicked off air for using racial slurs when discussing the Washington Redskins NFL team.

He said he voted for President Trump in 2016, but only because President Trump wasn’t Hillary Clinton. Where President Trump lost him, Walsh said, was during the president’s news conference with Vladimir Putin at their summit last year in Helsinki, Finland, at which President Trump sided with the Russian strongman over his own intelligence community’s assessments of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election.

In 2016, the former Illinois congressman said if Clinton was elected president, “I’m grabbing my musket,” and he called on others to do the same. He later insisted to CNN’s Jake Tapper that his comments were not an incitement to armed revolution. Walsh told Tapper he’s used the phrase “grab your musket” multiple times over the past several years, but never meant President Trump supporters should literally reach for their firearms.

Walsh was featured in a Showtime series in which “Borat” comedian Sacha Baron Cohen wore disguises to prank prominent figures like former Vice President Dick Cheney and former vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin. In a preview of the series “Who Is America?” Walsh was recorded seemingly advocating for arming children.

Walsh later defended himself to CNN’s Michael Smerconish and said he was reading off of a teleprompter, and didn’t know at the time “the whole thing was made up.” He said Cohen is a “funny guy because he gets people to say stupid things. He gets people to say stupid things because he lies to them.”

Walsh had previously called for a Republican to challenge the president, and earlier in August called President Trump an “unfit con man” who is “bad for the country.” But Walsh isn’t the only conservative candidate looking to take on President Trump.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld announced in April he would challenge President Trump, telling Tapper on “The Lead” that it would be a “political tragedy” and he would “fear for the republic” if the country had President Trump as president for a second term.

Former Rep. Mark Sanford told CNN’s Brianna Keilar on “CNN Right Now” in July that he is considering mounting a challenge to President Trump in 2020, with plans in August to explore a possible candidacy. The South Carolina Republican has planned visits to key early-voting states New Hampshire and Iowa.

Any of the three possible Republican contenders, though, would be a long shot against the president, who, according to Gallup, has an 88% approval rating among Republican voters.
Conservative radio host and former Illinois congressman Joe Walsh announces his run for president, becoming only the second Republican to challenge incumbent President Donald Trump.