Republican presidential candidate Will Hurd has called former President Donald Trump a “liar,” a “loser,” and a “national security threat” to the country in his recent taunts against his Republican rival.
In an interview with PBS’s Firing Line on Friday, Hurd took action against the former president about two weeks after he said Trump was running for president to “get out of jail.”
“Donald Trump is a liar, Donald Trump is a loser and Donald Trump is a national security threat to the United States and we have to be honest about that,” Hurd told moderator Margaret Hoover.
“And if we nominate him, if the GOP nominates him, then we’ll give Joe Biden and Kamala Harris four more years.”
The former Texas congressman opened the interview by telling Hoover how he wants to “empower” moderate GOP voters who are demoralized by the former president’s influence on the party’s grassroots.
Hurd, who last month denounced fellow candidates for being afraid to talk about Trump, described himself as having disliked bullies since childhood before detailing his plan to inspire voters through honesty.
“And the way you revive all the frustrated people and inspire the independents and the center-left Democrats who are fed up with the direction the Democratic Party is going is through honesty,” he said.
“And recently I was in Iowa speaking to a group that had a lot of Donald Trump supporters and I had to break the news to them that Donald Trump lost the 2020 election.”
The PBS show later recalled Hurd’s “jail” digs at Trump, remarks that prompted the former president to launch a rant on his Truth Social platform.
Hurd noted that in the booing and jeering crowd, some people weren’t happy that he was “honest.”
“But guess what, it had to be said,” Hurd remarked.
He added, “Because if we can’t have these honest debates within the Republican Party, we can’t ensure that this trend that’s been going on for 20 years — where a Republican lost the nationality to vote — should last 20 years.” not be the case and it will require us to be honest and look at ourselves.”