Former Republican bashes Trump for 'spreading a conspiracy theory' to deceive his base

During Barack Obama's presidency, then-Rep. Joe Walsh (R-Illinois) was known for being a Tea Party firebrand. But the Never Trump conservative recently made a bombshell announcement: He joined the Democratic Party.

This doesn't mean that Walsh is becoming liberal or progressive, but rather, reflects his view that Donald Trump's second presidency represents an existential threat to U.S. democracy — and that liberals, progressives, conservatives and libertarians will have to work together, policy differences and all, in order to save the country from sliding into authoritarianism.

During a Saturday morning, June 7 appearance on MSNBC's "The Weekend," now-Democrat Walsh called out Trump for promoting the conspiracy theory that former President Joe Biden signed a bunch of pardons via autopen because he was mentally incompetent. Trump also shared a social media post claiming that the real Biden was assassinated in 2020 and that the person who spent four years in the White House was a clone.

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Walsh told the Washington Post's Jonathan Capehart and Politico's Eugene Daniels — who now host "The Weekend" — "It's too easy to laugh at this, but I mean, it's serious. He's lying again. He's lying. And Jonathan, Eugene, he's spreading a conspiracy theory. That's what's so sad about this…. He's lying to and deceiving his base on purpose."

Walsh also lamented Trump's influence on the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and was vehemently critical of Attorney General Pam Bondi.

The former Tea Party Republican turned Democrat told Capehart and Daniels, "He's basically ended the ability of the Justice Department to pursue public corruption, to go after corporations, to go after white-collar crime. He does 1000 outrageous things a day, but what he's doing to the rule of law and the Justice Department, America is not paying close enough attention to…. This is a president who thinks he's above the law."

Walsh continued, "I mean, we can scream that from the mountaintop every day, and we should.… Pam Bondi is not the attorney general of the United States,? We put that to bed months ago. Pam Bondi is Donald Trump's personal lawyer. Period. And anybody in that Justice Department who doesn't want to represent Donald Trump instead of the Constitution and the law, they're gone. They've already left."

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