Joe Walsh, a former Republican congressman and onetime supporter of President Donald Trump who has since become one of the president's most vocal critics, says he cannot join the comedians and entertainers who mine Trump's statements for laughs. Walsh, who served one term representing Illinois in the House and later mounted a 2020 Republican primary challenge against Trump after breaking with him, said on Tuesday's episode of his podcast that he envies people who can joke about the president, but he believes the moment is too grave for satire.

“I'm so envious of other people who can make jokes about Trump, who can do satire about Trump, who can laugh at Trump, at all the stupid, crazy, mad, dishonest [stuff] he says,” Walsh said. His inability to laugh, he explained, stems from his view that Trump is dangerous and “utterly lawless.”

“I think he's everything our Founding Fathers feared. I think he's a tyrant. I think he's a fascist. I think he's a Russian asset. … I know he lies as he breathes. I think he's a sociopath. See, I think he's a really bad, dangerous guy. And I find nothing about that lighthearted or humorous,” Walsh said.

He pointed to the president's activity the day before, when Trump appeared before cameras and published a post promising money for reporting election fraud. “So, when Trump does something like he did Monday, when he got in front of the cameras and put out a post and said, ‘I'm gonna give a million dollars to everybody who finds voter fraud in these midterm elections’ … I don't think that's something to laugh at,” Walsh said. Courts have rejected numerous challenges to recent U.S. election results, and election officials have repeatedly found no evidence of the kind of widespread voter fraud Trump has alleged.

In his view, it makes no difference whether Trump intends to honor such a promise. “He lies every time he opens his mouth. That's what he does. ‘I'm going to give you $5,000 if Republicans win.’ ‘I'm going to take care of veterans if Republicans win.’ ‘I'm going to do this and that. I'm going to give you this freebie, that freebie, if you vote Republican.’ It's all a bunch of lies. He's a liar. Where would this money even come from? Nobody knows,” he said.

For Walsh, the deeper damage lies in how routinely Trump's statements are brushed aside by news organizations and the public. “I'm so sick of how we've all — you, CNN, MSNOW, all of you — how we've normalized him,” he said. “The sitting president of the United States gets in front of a camera, puts out a post and says, ‘I'll give anybody who finds voter fraud … a million dollars’ and 90 percent of the people in this country, 99 percent of the media, they just chuckle, shake their head and say, ‘oh, that's just Trump.’”

“We all know he wants another January 6. That's how come I can't laugh at this,” Walsh argued. “… [T]his is Donald Trump assaulting and at war on our elections process. There's nothing funny about that. Don't normalize that. He won't accept an election loss in a week.” The reference was to January 6, 2021, when a crowd of Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol as Congress certified the results of the 2020 presidential election.

Walsh predicted that if Democrats win control of the House, or the Senate, Trump will “stand in front of the American people and say it was a stolen or rigged election.” Control of both chambers of Congress will be decided when voters go to the polls on Tuesday.

“And they've got elaborate plans, the Trump administration does, with help from DHS, with help from the Department of Justice, with help from the FBI, with help from our intelligence agencies, with help from ICE. They have an elaborate plan to [tamper] with Election Day,” he said.

According to Walsh, Trump's allies in the Texas state government, along with allies in the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security, are already prepared to carry out what he described as an assault on the election results.

“So, no. Please, this Tuesday, don't roll your eyes at or just say, this is Trump. This is Donald Trump planting the seeds for his rigged stolen election [bull]. Don't fall for it. And don't laugh at it,” Walsh said.

Source: Alternet