Trump Reacts to Joe Walsh’s Candidacy: ‘BAD Congressman’ Who Lost and ‘Failed in Radio’

President Donald Trump tweeted tonight blasting the two Republicans mounting long-shot primary races against him and a third potential challenger.

Joe Walsh, a former Republican congressman whose candidacy has mostly been a mea culpa tour, announced he’s running on Sunday. He has apologized for racist tweets, publicly denounced his past support of Trump, and said the president’s character is a big factor in why he’s running.

Bill Weld is also running in the GOP primary, and Mark Sanford may be getting in too.

Trump tonight swiped at all three in a tweet with references to Walsh’s congressional and radio careers, Sanford’s infamous “hike on the Appalachian trail,” and an unclear reference to (presumably) Weld not being able to “stand up straight while receiving an award”:

Can you believe it? I’m at 94% 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….

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 27, 2019

….Another is 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. I should be able to take them!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 27, 2019

Walsh responded to Trump in a tweet calling the president a lunatic:

Luckily @realDonaldTrump hasn’t blocked my team (yet) or I wouldn’t have known the madman in the White House is taking shots at me.

2 things:

1. As President, I’ll never block the American people on Twitter. That’s nuts.

2. Help us defeat this lunatic: https://t.co/d40HA9h2Kz https://t.co/7MCt1cIpGG

— Joe Walsh (@WalshFreedom) August 27, 2019

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