Citing his own high approval ratings, President Trump dismissed his potential opposition in the Republican Party primary race, labeling them on Twitter on Aug. 28 as “Three Stooges,” saying, “I should be able to take them!”
“Can you believe it?” Trump wrote. “I’m at 94 percent approval in the Republican Party, and have Three Stooges running against me.”
“One is ‘Mr. Appalachian Trail’ who was actually in Argentina for bad reasons,” the president wrote, in reference to former South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford. Sanford famously disappeared for a week in 2009 and later admitted to being in Argentina with his mistress after his spokesperson had claimed he was hiking the Appalachian Trail.
So far two candidates, Rep. Joe Walsh (R-Ill.) and former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld (R) have officially thrown their hats in the ring.
Continuing in another Twitter post, Trump described Walsh as a “one-time BAD Congressman from Illinois who lost in his second term by a landslide, then failed in radio.”
“The third is a man who couldn’t stand up straight while receiving an award,” Trump added, in what appears to be a reference to then-governor of Massachusetts Weld collapsing in 1996 as he received an honorary law degree from Bentley.
So far, Sanford is the only one of the three to respond, writing on Twitter: “So ready for a president that can move beyond either self-praise or put down to one who will focus on the debt & deficit that have gone wild under his time in office. Spending 27 percent above Obama and deficits even higher. It’s time for a change.”
“I figured that might happen,” Walsh told CNN anchor John Berman.
“I’m running for president,” he said. “I oppose this president. Most of my listeners support the president. It’s not an easy thing to do to be in conservative talk radio and oppose this president.”
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