JUDY WOODRUFF: From Trump
supporter to Trump challenger,
former Illinois Congressman Joe

Walsh recently announced that
he will take on the incumbent
president in the 2020 Republican

presidential primary.

He joins former Massachusetts
Governor William Weld in
challenging President Trump.

Walsh gained national attention
in 2010, when he was elected
to the House of Representatives

as a member of the Tea Party.

He served one term, lost his
reelection bid and, until
yesterday, hosted a conservative

radio talk show.

And Joe Walsh joins us now.

Thank you for being
on the "NewsHour."

JOE WALSH (R), Presidential
Candidate: Good to be
view with you, Judy.

JUDY WOODRUFF: So, why are
you running for president?

JOE WALSH: It's a difficult
thing to say, but I think we
have a president, I believe

we have a president who's
just unfit to be president.

I have been hoping all year
that a Republican would step up.

I think it's important
for the Republican Party.

More importantly, I think it's
important for the country.

When I say something
like that, Judy, it's a
pretty serious charge.

I think we have somebody
in the White House who's
unfit, somebody who
lies virtually every

time he opens his mouth,
somebody who's so erratic right
now, he's almost tweeting the

country into a recession.

I think it's a fairly
urgent situation.

JUDY WOODRUFF: You were,
though, in 2016, an
enthusiastic supporter of his.

What drew you to him
in the first place?

JOE WALSH: The people who
voted for Donald Trump were the
same people who voted for me,

and they're the same
people, Judy, who listened
to me on the radio.

They were upset and angry about
what's going on down at the
border about people in this

country illegally.

And the Republican Party
generally was out of
touch with that issue.

Now, Trump touched that issue.

He tapped that issue.

That was a big issue to me
and a lot of my listeners.

JUDY WOODRUFF: But what was it?

Was that the main reason?

It was immigration?

JOE WALSH: No, I think that
was the biggest issue that
got Donald Trump elected.

It was one of the biggest issues
that I was concerned about,
and that most of my listeners

and voters were concerned about.

But there was this sense, Judy,
that the system was broken.

And I agree.

That's why I went
to Congress in 2010.

Both political parties
kind of were broken.

The whole political
system had broke down.

And people sent Trump to
Washington to shake it up and
drain the swamp and all of that.

The problem is, all
he's done is disrupt.

And he hasn't done
anything to fix.

JUDY WOODRUFF: But you
stayed with him after he
was elected president.

You supported him for
a number of months.

What was it that you didn't
see in the beginning that
was there to you later?

JOE WALSH: Judy, this may sound
odd, and, if it is, I apologize.

When I voted for Trump,
I didn't love him.

I didn't like him.

He wasn't Hillary.

I figured -- I thought
he was sort of a goof.

I figured he'd hire a few
good people, and maybe a few
good things would happen.

When -- then, when he
first became president,
I did the whole good
Trump/bad Trump thing.

When he did something
that I thought was pretty
good, I would praise him.

I would criticize
him when he didn't.

It became apparent to me, Judy,
that first year, again, that
almost everything he said,

he would lie to the American
people all the time.

That really bothered me, no
matter who your politics are.

And then, finally, at Helsinki
last year, in July of 2013...

JUDY WOODRUFF: When he
met with Vladimir Putin.

JOE WALSH: Judy, when he stood
in front of the world, and
said, I believe that guy Putin,

and not my own people, I got
ahead of myself with a tweet.

To me, that was an
act of disloyalty.

And that's -- that was
the final straw for me.

JUDY WOODRUFF: So
what would change?

If Joe Walsh were elected
president, what policy would be
different under your presidency

from the way it is
under President Trump?

Because you just said you agree
with him on a number of...

JOE WALSH: On a
number of issues.

It's interesting.

So let's go back to the issue
that got him elected, one of
the issues I care most about,

the border.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Right.

JOE WALSH: He ran on that issue.

As you know, because you report
on it, the situation at our
border now is a bigger mess

than it was when he got elected.

Why is that?

Because all he talked about,
Judy, was this wall, wall,
wall, wall, and Mexico's going

to pay for it.

He hasn't done
anything at the border.

We have a humane crisis right
now at our border, people
coming to claim asylum.

That has nothing
to do with a wall.

JUDY WOODRUFF: But you have
said you would close the border.

You would be -- would you be
even tougher on people coming
into this country than the

president has been?

JOE WALSH: Certainly, anybody
trying to come into the country
illegally, I would be tougher.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Would you
separate children from their
parents at the border, as this

administration has done?

JOE WALSH: No.

And then so that's
the second piece.

People coming into the
country illegally, there's
got to be no exception.

But people coming here to
claim asylum, which is a legal
thing to do, totally different

group of people.

And those people right now --
and that's our biggest crisis
at the border right now -- those

people have to be dealt with
humanely, and as quickly as
we can deal with their asylum

claims.

JUDY WOODRUFF: But, as you
know, the president wants to
crack down on asylum claims.

He wants many fewer -- he wants
those people to go back to
the countries they came from

while their asylum
claims are pending.

JOE WALSH: Again, anybody
around the world has the right
to come here and claim asylum,

OK?

It's our responsibility -- this
is a fundamental difference,
Judy, with me and the president.

It's our responsibility
to hear those claims.

Now, we do a lousy
job now of doing that.

We have got to devote the
resources to do - - deal
with those a lot quicker.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Climate change,
where are you on climate change?

Do you believe that humans
have a role in it and that
humans should be taking urgent

action now to do something?

JOE WALSH: Yes to the former.

On the urgent
action, I don't know.

Certainly, on action, I -- the
first big step, Judy, is my
party, the Republican Party, has

to acknowledge it's an
issue, it's a problem.

This president won't.

And, in fact, I don't even
think he understands the issue.

So it would be an issue,
I think, the Republican
Party needs to get on
board with and lead

on.

JUDY WOODRUFF: But would you
-- for example, would you take
steps that would make business

very upset because
it might cost jobs?

JOE WALSH: I would be --
I would be very careful.

And I'm not trying
to be vague, Judy.

The first step is for a
Republican president to
acknowledge it's a problem,
man is contributing

to the problem.

And then let's bring
all the important people
together, including
business and businesses,

and figure out things
that need to be done.

But before we do anything to
impact the American economy, we
have got -- we have got to make

sure we have got
the accurate data.

JUDY WOODRUFF: What about gay
rights, same-sex marriage?

I'm jumping around because
these are important
issues to many voters.

JOE WALSH: No, that's OK.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Gay rights,
same-sex marriage, this
is an administration
that has taken steps

to, in many ways, crack down
on and reduce benefits for
people who are -- or just allow

some discrimination against
people who happen to be gay.

JOE WALSH: Yes.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Where
do you stand on that?

JOE WALSH: Same-sex marriage
is the law of the land.

That's the way it is.

So we all accept it.

When it comes to gay rights
-- and this administration
has been very tough on
transgenders and gays

serving in the media --
excuse me -- in the military.

JUDY WOODRUFF: In the military.

JOE WALSH: Absolutely, anybody
who can qualify to serve in
the military, gay, straight or

transgender, should
be able to serve.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Abortion,
where do you stand?

JOE WALSH: I'm pro-life.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And you have
said in the past no exceptions,
even when the life of the mother

is at stake.

JOE WALSH: I'm pro-life
without exception.

That decision right
there is between the
mother and the doctor.

I do believe that the whole Roe
v. Wade issue may have to be
dealt with, but I'm pro-life

without exception.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Joe Walsh,
you have made, as we --
as it's been reported, a
number of controversial,

even incendiary statements
over the years, a radio talk
show host, somebody who's been

outspoken.

JOE WALSH: Yes.

JUDY WOODRUFF: You have
apologized for a number
of them in the last
recent days and weeks.

But when did you start
to think some of these
statements were wrong?

And I just want to
ask you about...

JOE WALSH: Sure.

JUDY WOODRUFF: For
example, you said President
Obama is a Muslim.

You have said that he was born
outside the United States.

JOE WALSH: No, I never --
I never didn't say that.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Well, you were
-- you sounded sympathetic to
the birther false statements

that were out there.

JOE WALSH: Absolutely.

And, Judy, that's an
important distinction.

I never was part of the
so-called birther movement.

But you're right.

On a number of occasions, I
said Barack Obama is a Muslim.

I wrote in an -- an op-ed
in The New York Times
about two weeks ago...

JUDY WOODRUFF: Right.

JOE WALSH: ... saying that
President Trump is unfit,
somebody should challenge him.

And I apologized for the role
I played in what I believe
is helping to put an unfit

con man in the White House.

Judy, I went to Washington
in 2010 to raise hell.

I was part of that
Tea Party class.

And oftentimes in that
fight, I let the policy fight
become a personal fight.

And I got involved in this
whole -- the demonization
of my political opponents.

I believe that that helped
lead to this president.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And when did
you decide that was wrong?

JOE WALSH: A year or so after
President Trump got elected.

I'm only hesitating because,
after President Trump got
elected, and day by day, week by

week, month by month went
by, I looked at him and I
listened to him, and I thought,

oh, my God, is that what I
sounded like back in the day?

Is that what I sound
like on the radio?

In many ways, Judy, his
election has been my
road to Damascus moment.

And I decided a year,
a year-and-a-half ago
that I wasn't going to
engage in the personal

destruction.

JUDY WOODRUFF: You have also
said that you have the right
to say that blacks are lazy.

JOE WALSH: Yes, not -- not
that I believe blacks are lazy.

JUDY WOODRUFF: But why
would you even say that?

JOE WALSH: Well, a big
issue that I'm so passionate
about is free speech,
people being able to

say what they want to say.

Now, again...

JUDY WOODRUFF: But my question
is, why would you even say that
a group of Americans, based

on their race, is...

JOE WALSH: I could have
said white people are lazy.

I could have said whatever.

JUDY WOODRUFF: But you didn't.

That's not what you said.

JOE WALSH: No, I know.

But if you -- Judy, if you go
through my 40,000 tweets, I did
a pretty bad or horrible job

of offending a lot of people.

Look, I was a radio
talk show host.

I felt a big part of my job
was to provoke and get people
thinking about a number of

issues.

And, again, oftentimes,
I went over the line.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Do you
believe that any minority
in this country is lazy...

JOE WALSH: No.

JUDY WOODRUFF: ... or should
be discriminated against?

(CROSSTALK)

JUDY WOODRUFF: I mean,
you're saying all your
views have changed...

(CROSSTALK)

JOE WALSH: No, no, no, no,
my views haven't changed.

And I have never believed that.

Certainly, some things that I
have said have been pretty --
pretty aggressive, but, no,

I mean, those aren't --
those aren't my views.

That's just the way I,
unfortunately, pushed
the envelope too often.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Joe Walsh,
running for president,
running for the Republican
nomination, thank

you.

JOE WALSH: Judy, thank you.