U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during the annual Thanksgiving turkey pardoning ceremony in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., November 25, 2025. REUTERS Nathan Howard
When former U.S. Rep. Joe Walsh (R-Ill.) announced his candidacy in October 2009, he said his opening campaign speech dealt with the nation’s debilitating debt: ”My name is Joe Walsh, I’m running for Congress, and I’m [furious] at both political parties for bankrupting future generations of Americans.”
This Friday, Walsh was apparently still mad, boiling at the horrific expenditures of President Donald Trump and his enablers in the Republican-dominated House and Senate.
“And you know what’s absolutely crazy about this? When I announced my candidacy in October of 2009, the national debt was $11.9 trillion,” said Walsh. “When I was sworn into Congress in January of 2011, the debt was $14.1 trillion. As I write this, the debt now stands at $39.86 trillion, and by the time you read this, the debt will be over $39.9 trillion.”
“The Republican Party we have is an authoritarian embracing cult. So they will do whatever he wants them to do, as opposed to being the Congress that our founders envisioned. An utter check on executive power. We don't have that,” Walsh said in a Friday podcast.
Walsh guest-host Edwin Eisendrath, former member of the Chicago City Council, said that at least it was looking like Democrats may take the House and put a check on the damage the united bloc of Trump and a Republican Congress were doing to the nation and it's beleaguered pocketbook.
“We have candidates all over the place. But there's something else they did this primary season. They ran everywhere,” said Eisendrath. “So, you're going to have in the ruralist parts of Missouri, Democratic candidates who haven't run in that place in ages. And they mostly won't win, but they will shrink the margins. They'll shrink the margins.”
Walsh, a former member of the Tea Party movement that took off after the election of the nation’s first Black president, said he saw the Tea Party’s energy in Democrats’ anti-establishment groundswell.
“I know some of our listeners get bothered when I call what's happening now the Democrats having their Tea Party moment. When I say that, I'm only equating the fact that both movements are anti-establishment. Yes, they completely differ. And very energetic,” said Walsh.
“I was part of the Tea Party wave,” Walsh admitted. “There were more first-time candidates running for office in 2010 and 2012 than ever before in the Republican Party. Just a lot of average regular people got [ticked] off and said, ‘I'm going to run.’ We're seeing a lot of that on the Democratic side this cycle. A lot of business, small businessmen and women are running. A lot of people who've never run before. This is a great thing.”
