Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers said Sunday that he will never again support Donald Trump for president, a turnabout from his previous stance that he would back the Republican in another matchup against President Biden.
“I’ll never vote for him, but I won’t have to. Because I think America’s tired and there’s some absolutely forceful, qualified, morally defensible and upright people, and that’s what I want,” the Republican state lawmaker told ABC’s “This Week.” “That’s what I want in my party and that’s what I want to see.”
Mr. Bowers went on to unleash choice words for Mr. Trump, labeling the former president a “demagogue” who holds onto his sway within the GOP with “thuggery and intimidation.”
“I have thought, at times, someone born how he was, raised how he was — he has no idea what a hard life is and what people have to go through in the real world,” Mr. Bowers said. “He has no idea what courage is.”
As recently as last month, he suggested he would support Mr. Trump. However, that was before Mr. Bowers testified before the House Jan. 6 Committee about Mr. Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in Arizona.
Since his televised primetime testimony, Mr. Trump labeled him a “coward” and other Republicans have called him a “traitor,” Mr. Bowers said.
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Mr. Trump has not yet officially announced a 2024 candidacy. He is thought to be waiting until after the November midterms, a move that Republicans on Capitol Hill have lobbied him to do so as to avoid handicapping their chances of taking back control of Congress.
