Madison, Wisconsin (CBS 58) A leading Republican is supporting former President Donald Trump after describing him as a “loser” if he becomes the party’s presidential nominee.
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) said on Tuesday that he had endorsed Trump, the presumptive GOP nominee, despite previously stating that he did not believe Trump could overcome President Joe Biden.
“I do not want to nominate losers, and that is exactly what I believe will occur if Donald Trump is the nominee,” Vos stated at the time. “Why would Republicans choose the only person Joe Biden can beat? “That’s stupid.”
“It will be a choice between two men. It will not be a decision about what I believe the president should be. “What do I believe the president should not be?” Vos spoke to the media following a WisPolitics event.
“It’s going to be, do you think the policies that Joe Biden has put in place over the past four years are better for the country, or were times better under Donald Trump, when we had low inflation, low taxes, more control at the border?”
Vos has previously stated that he would consider voting for Trump if he were the nominee.
For years, Vos and Trump have had a difficult relationship, with both exchanging barbs on investigating and decertifying the 2020 election. Trump and his followers have slammed the Rochester Republican for failing to decertify Biden’s victory, which is both impossible and unlawful.
Vos did spend more than $1 million in taxpayer cash to investigate concerns about the 2020 election, but he eventually abandoned the endeavor after firing his investigator, who discovered no proof of massive fraud.
Audits, judicial rulings, recounts, and a conservative-led inquiry have all validated Biden’s victory in Wisconsin.
Since the backlash, Trump has continued to raise problems for Vos by sponsoring his primary opponent in the 2022 midterms. Vos won the race by a razor-thin margin over Adam Steen, despite a national campaign against him.
But the desire to remove him has not vanished. This year, organizers gathered signatures to recall Vos.
Petitions were filed to the state Election Commission last week, but officials ruled after an initial review that there were insufficient resident signatures to initiate a recall.
Vos referred to the recall organizers as “whack jobs” and “morons” and believes several of the signatures were falsified, which is currently being investigated by the Racine County District Attorney.