Joe Walsh

Not to be confused with the guitarist from Eagles.

Sadly, this is what qualifies for being a "moderate" Republican in this day and age.

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William Joseph "Joe" Walsh (1961–) is a former Congressman and arguably one of the poster boys of the Tea Party. He represented Illinois's 8^th district in the United States House of Representatives from January 3, 2011 to January 3, 2013, and is currently a conservative talk radio host and also hosts his own show on Newsmax TV.

As a congressman

Walsh was elected to the House of Representatives, defeating Democrat Melissa Bean, despite not being particularly favored by established Republicans in the House, though he did receive support from the Tea Party, and he received donations from various PACs and lobbyists, which drew criticism from The New York Times.

Walsh was a staunch opponent of Obamacare (because of course he was) and announced that he would not accept congressional health care benefits because of that.

Walsh also criticized everything else that Obama or the Democrats did, because, of course he did. He notably posted a video to YouTube where he claimed that Obama was bankrupting the country. He consistently voted against raising the federal debt ceiling and authored a Balanced Budget Amendment to the United States Constitution. Walsh has also said that President Obama was elected "because he pushed that magical button: a black man who was articulate, liberal, the whole white guilt, all of that."

In September 2011, Walsh was among 19 members of Congress who were criticized for ethics violations in the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington's annual report.

A few months after that, he was caught on video swearing at one of his constituents who questioned him about remarks defending the banks.

Probably his only real achievement in Congress was holding 363 town hall meetings, more than any other member of Congress.

As a radio host

After losing reelection to Tammy Duckworth (beaten by an Asian-American woman, ha!), Walsh started up his own conservative radio talk show, The Joe Walsh Show, which at times broadcasts a level of conservative wingnuttery that would make Rush Limbaugh proud. In its earlier days, The Joe Walsh Show continued to constantly bash Obama — so it wasn't much different from his tenure in Congress. He's also used racial slurs, insulted rape victims, the media, Islam, Black Lives Matter, and teh evul liberals.

On December 19, 2015, Walsh announced that he would run for President of the United States in 2020 if Hillary Clinton won the 2016 presidential election. In October 2016, he voiced his support for Donald Trump and said he'd be "grabbing [his] musket" if Hillary won (though he later claimed that he was just encouraging civil disobedience).

Surprisingly, Walsh has had two stopped clock moments in 2017, both on Twitter. On December 7, Walsh spoke against Donald Trump defending Russia and attacking the FBI, calling it "bullshit" (like he's one to call BS on others). On Christmas Eve, Walsh also railed against Trump for again attacking the FBI and CNN on Christmas Eve. He told Trump to "put [his] phone down" and "go spend time with [his] family", ending it with "Have you no sense of decency?"

However, Walsh has since gone back to his normal bullshitting, describing the "dismantling of Obama's legacy" as "wonderful to watch" in the aftermath of Donald Trump ending the Iran Deal, and also constantly praising Israel and claiming that the Democrats have essentially become communists.

Fighting the cult of Trump

Shortly after President Trump's summit with Vladimir Putin in July 2018, Walsh did the unthinkable and rescinded his support for Trump completely, calling him a "traitor to his country", and that he'd "never support him again." On August 25, 2019, Walsh announced that he would challenge Trump in the 2020 U.S. presidential election. According to Walsh, this announcement caused Salem Radio Network, who had been syndicating Walsh's conservative talk radio show, to cancel it, perhaps due to his critical stance on Trump. (Salem's official explanation was that, since Walsh was a presidential candidate, they had to cancel Walsh's three-hours-daily talk show because hosting this show would violate the FCC's Equal-time rule).

Following his failed run in the 2020 Republican primaries, he declared that the GOP had become little more than a Trump cult and that he would vote for whichever Democrat won the nomination, even if they were socialist. He subsequently left the GOP and is now an independent.

Despite having previously said that he was "done with talk radio", on June 1^st 2020, Walsh got another chance to host a talk show, this time distributed by the Global American Broadcasting (GAB) Radio Network. On May 27^th 2021, Walsh announced that this show had also been cancelled. According to Walsh, this cancellation was due to his critical stance on Trump.

References

2020 United States presidential election articles on RationalWiki

Topics: Abortion - Climate change - Coronavirus - Education - Illegal immigration - Gun control - LGBT rights - Marijuana - Supreme Court - Taxes - United States Electoral College - Universal healthcare
Parties: Democratic Party (primaries) - Green Party of the United States - Libertarian Party - Republican Party
Candidates: Biden (D) - Bloomberg (D) - Buttigieg (D) - Gabbard (D) - Gravel (D) - Harris (D) - O'Rourke (D) - Sanders (D) - Sanford (R) - Trump (R) - Walsh (R) - Warren (D) - West (Independent) - Williamson (D) - Yang (D) • Running mates: Harris (D) - Pence (R)
Winner: Joe Biden
Fallout from sore losers: 2021 U.S. Capitol riot

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