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Joe Walsh on President Biden ending POTUS re-election bid · Kvetch & Release

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  Still just staggering news, quite frankly coming out of the United States. I
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  mean, some people might have expected President Joe Biden to drop out of the
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  race. I was sort of at the fifty to fifty point. I did
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  not know what to expect. I thought that he was steely and locked in
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  and unwilling to budge. But I also thought that as the pressure continued to
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  mount, it would be very interesting to see how things unfolded. And here
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  we are now knowing for a fact that President Biden has dropped out of the
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  race. He has endorsed Kamala Harris, the vice president, to be the
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  Democratic nominee. It's a pretty big deal. It shakes up the election in
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  ways, in more ways than one, in numerous ways. Joining me to
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  discuss is someone who knows a little bit about presidential elections. He was the
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  former twenty twenty Republican presidential candidate. He's a former Illinois congressman, a talk
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  radio host, and a former social worker. Joe Walsh joins me right now,
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  how you doing this morning, Good to be with you, my friend.
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  Thank you, hey, thank you so much for joining me. Were
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  you surprised when this news oh yesterday? No, you know that debate,
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  right, John, That debate seems like it was ten years ago, But
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  that debate was just over a month ago. But I woke up the morning
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  after that debate and I said to myself, he can't last. Joe Biden
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  had one thing to prove, and one thing only to prove in this campaign
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  that he wasn't too old. He couldn't prove that a month ago. In
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  fact, he disproved it, and America could never unsee that. So it
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  took a month's worth of you know, gentle pressure. But I know Biden
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  believes what I believe, that Donald Trump is an existential threat to our democracy.
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  Joe Biden finally realized that he's not the guy who can beat Trump,
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  and Trump has to lose. So you've been hitting this drum beat as to
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  why you think that Donald Trump is not the guy, why he's dangerous.
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  You are a Republican yourself? Still, are are you a cardcarring Republican or
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  are you a conservative? Oh? I apologize, Yeah, No, I'm
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  a conservative. I left the Republican Party four years ago after my don quixote
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  Republican primary challenge against Trump. So I'm a conservative, A politically homeless guy.
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  So then when you see what Donald Trump embodies and what he's running on,
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  I guess why is it that he, in your opinion, is not
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  the guy to lead the country at this moment. Or four years ago,
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  Oh my gosh, you and I don't have enough time, So I'll cut
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  to the chase. He doesn't believe in democracy. He believes he's above the
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  rule of law. I say every day that he's a threat to democracy.
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  And I try to give a bunch of examples. I'll give just one.
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  Three and a half years ago, he refused to accept the results of an
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  election that had never happened before in America. He then tried to overthrow the
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  election. Here's what we know, like now, it's going to be Kamala
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  Harris. Right. If Kamala Harris loses this is in November, she will
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  concede and she'll accept the results. If Donald Trump loses in November, he
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  won't, and he won't. That's a direct threat to our democratic process right
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  there. How poignant is it that you know Donald Trump, you know,
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  fomented the January sixth attack that occurred, didn't let go. And here you
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  have, you know, Joe Biden, the president willingly walking away from the
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  election months before it even occurs. I mean, it's a real stark difference
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  between the two personalities. And as someone who was a lifelong Republican and I
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  was a Republican congressman, it makes me immensely sad because it tells me where
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  my former political party is right now. My former political party is a I've
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  said it, a bunch an authoritarian embracing cult. Three and a half years
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  ago, Trump overthrows an election. He should be a pariah in this country.
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  He should have been tossed into Siberia. But here he is still the
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  leader of that party and he's on the verge of getting elected again. It
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  doesn't speak well of the party, and truthfully, it doesn't speak well of
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  America. Does the Republican Party exist anymore outside of just you know, name
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  and appearance. Has it become something irreparably damaged? Do you think it could
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  ever go back to the party that you were a card caring member of that
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  you ran for. It will never go back to what it was before Trump.
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  And again, remember I voted for Trump in twenty sixteen. I was
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  never kind of an establishment squishy Republican. I was a big Tea party guy.
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  I believed in freedom and free markets. It'll never go back there.
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  This party is a maga, trumpy party. It's going to stay this way
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  for my lifetime. I think after this election, I think there's a decent
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  chance a new political party, a third party, will come to America.
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  Well, and is there an appetite for it? Yes, there are so
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  many like me who are and you and I haven't talked about the Democratic Party.
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  I'm not a Democratic man. Do they have their issues? There are
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  so many people in the middle, and there are so many center right people
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  like me who don't have a home that can't continue. It's a fracturous place
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  to be. So let's talk then, briefly about the Democrats. I would
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  love to get your take on it. With Vice President Harris looking like she
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  is going to be the Democrat nominee, I don't think, absent some act
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  of God, that that's not going to occur. What do you think about
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  her bona fides and her potential candidacy, as well as the fact I suppose
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  that whether or not we have a debate or not between her and President Trump
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  former President Trump, it still is a prosecutor going up against a convicted felon.
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  That's interesting, Yeah, very interesting. So I'm still I'm in the
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  camp where it doesn't matter to me who the Democratic nominee is. I'm going
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  to vote for the Democratic nominee. If Biden had stayed in Heck, if
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  Joe Biden were one hundred and fifty one years old, I would have voted
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  for him over Trump. Having said all of that, I think the fact
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  that Biden is out Kamala Harris America. You know this hated this matchup Biden
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  Trump. Are you telling that's the best America can do? I mean I
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  heard that every day. You probably heard that every day. So taking Biden
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  out of the equation, putting anyone new in, I think we all underestimate
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  the enormous enthusiasm this will bring forth. I do a lot of speaking on
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  college campuses in America. Young people didn't want to vote for either one of
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  these two guys. They're going to be jazzed up for Harris. And finally,
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  I don't think the Trump campaign fully knows how to deal I know Donald
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  Trump doesn't know how to deal with Kamala Harris. Do you still talk with
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  any currently elected Republicans like in the House yes, fewer and fewer every year.
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  But I just very very very privately on background background, But yes I
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  do. And there are still many who feel the same way about Trump.
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  I do, but they can't say it public. But there are an increasing
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  number of what I call real true believer crazies who do believe in all the
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  trumpy stuff. It's very interesting our vantage point where we broadcast from and Windsor,
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  Ontario, just across from Detroit, Michigan. We've got a front row
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  seat to everything that's happening across the border. Of course, it seems like
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  increasingly, at least from my perspective, America is fracturrous, that's becoming more
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  polarized, more divisive. I'm wondering that do you think that there is the
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  opportunity through renewal for maybe some kind of a healing and coming together or is
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  that just Canadian optimism too high? Oh? Man, I love that question.
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  Here's my answer. When I was in Congress ten years ago, actually
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  I spoke about how I think we're too divided to ever stay together. I
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  think the jury is still out in that question. America is going through what
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  I've called our third revolutionary period. I don't know if this country can stay
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  together. This is the most divided we've been since just for the Civil War.
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  I think things are going to get much darker before they get before,
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  or if they get better. This is a really, really rocky time,
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  and I don't know. If this great experiment can stay together, it'll be
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  quite fascinated. What keeps you optimistic about America? Well, I'm a dark
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  irishman. If you'd asked me that question six years ago, I don't have
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  a lot of opt I didn't have a lot of optimism. Part of me
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  thinks like America has run its course. The only thing that keeps me optimistic
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  is young people. Young people, though they may differ with me politically,
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  they are very motivated and very engaged, and they're pissed off at older generations
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  like myself. I hope they take that piss offness and they use it constructively
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  to help unite this country. Should more young people get into politics, Yes,
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  oh god, I preached that all the time. I get why they
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  don't want to, because it sucks, I mean running through office down here,
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  so you open up your life for the world to see. But here's
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  the deal. We really are broken. I mean, think about it.
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  How could a guy like Donald Trump ever get elected president in this country?
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  A very broken country would do that. Our country is broken. We need
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  a lot of reform the way we elect people, the electoral college. Most
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  of the world still doesn't understand. I think we're at the precipice of a
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  major, major reform period coming up in America after this election. You know
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  what worries me. I look at America and, of course, you know,
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  the the beacon of world security, the pillar of global policing to a
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  certain extent, But with these fractuous divisions on the inside, it seems like
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  it's harder and harder for the country to keep its eye on the ball.
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  And there's a lot that's going on in the world that you know about,
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  of course. I mean, we've got the Middle East, We've got Russia
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  moving into Ukraine is continuing with that. I mean, it's China ascending even
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  more so. I mean, it's a dangerous time. Oh, such a
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  one thing to say. It's in an important point. It is a dangerous
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  time. And we have one of our two major political parties is led by
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  a philosophy that wants to build a wall around America and shut the rest of
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  the world out. You can't do that, and America can't do that.
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  I'm know, Neil Khan, like, I don't want America fighting everywhere,
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  but America is a leader, is the leader, the indispensable leader. But
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  you're right, we're at each other's throats in this country. We hate people
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  that we politically disagree with. That's untenable in a democracy. Got to find
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  a way to be able to still disagree with each other without hating each other.
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  Man, Like, how we do. I disagree with you on some
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  things, but I still like that we get to have a conversation like this
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  one. Joemen, Hey, well, thank you so much for your time.
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  Friend. I hope that we get to speak again sometime soon. Would
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  love that. Thank you, my friend. Thank you. Joe Walsh is
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  a former Illinois congressman and a twenty twenty Republican presidential candidate talk radio host.
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  You can check him out at Wallhall Freedom