Former South Carolina governor Mark Sanford (R) dropped out of the race for president, ending his protest bid 60 days after it began, the Charleston Post & Courier reports.
Sanford said there was “no appetite on the right for a nuanced conversation on the fiscal deficit.”
“Facing monumental longshot odds in a fractured Republican Party, former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford this morning formally announced his bid to challenge President Trump for the White House,” the Charleston Post & Courier reports.
Former Rep. Mark Sanford (R-SC), who is weighing a primary bid against President Trump, said that he would vote for the president over a Democrat even though he also said Trump doesn’t deserve reelection, The Hill reports.
Explained Sanford: “Everything is relative in politics.”
Former Rep. Mark Sanford (R-SC) said that he is “growing ever closer” to mounting a Republican primary challenge against President Trump following a visit this week to New Hampshire, the Washington Post reports.
“There’s a big storm coming.”
— Former Rep. Mark Sanford (R-SC), in a campaign style video, arguing that America is “in the most precarious financial position” and “not dealing with it could crush our economy, it could wipe out whatever we’ve saved, it could even destroy our republic.”
Just a day after hinting he might challenge President Trump in the Republican primaries, former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford (R) is out with a video.
Said Sanford: “I’m frustrated with many things in Washington these days. But on the top of my list is the way people there have seemingly forgotten that debt, deficits and spending really do matter.”
First Read: “Remember, modern incumbent presidents who have avoided credible primary challenges have gone on to win re-election (Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama).”
Mark Sanford (R), the former South Carolina congressman ousted from office after President Trump urged voters to reject him, told Charleston Post & Courier he is considering a run for president.
Sanford confirmed he will take the next month to formulate whether he will mount a potential run against Trump as a way of pushing a national debate about America’s mounting debt, deficit and government spending.
Said Sanford: “Sometimes in life you’ve got to say what you’ve got to say, whether there’s an audience or not for that message.”
“This is a temporary blip on the radar screen… I hope so, if not we’re in real trouble.”
— Rep. Mark Sanford (R-SC), quoted by The Hill, on the Trump presidency.
Rep. Mark Sanford (R-SC) told the Washington Post that President Trump’s tweet slamming him “probably made the difference” in his primary loss, noting that the results were within a few hundred votes of what it would have taken to get into a runoff.
But he added: “I don’t know if the outcome would have been different in the long run, because of the larger tide I was up against.”
Rep. Mark Sanford (R-SC), already facing a tough fight in today’s Republican primary, had to deal with a blistering tweet from President Trump.
Said Trump: “Mark Sanford has been very unhelpful to me in my campaign to MAGA. He is MIA and nothing but trouble. He is better off in Argentina.”
Rep. Mark Sanford (R-SC) “has spent the past three years torching President Donald Trump, firmly establishing himself as a staunch critic of the commander-in-chief who, unlike so many others in his party, never came around,” Politico reports.
“Now he’s suddenly at risk of losing his job over it.”
”The once seemingly safe former South Carolina governor, who’s never lost a bid for political office, is sweating in the final days of his primary race against state Rep. Katie Arrington, a political newcomer who’s cast Sanford as a disloyal Never-Trumper.”
Rep. Mark Sanford (R-SC) told the Washington Post that President Trump’s alleged affair with porn star Stormy Daniels was “deeply troubling.”
Sanford, who admitted to having an extramarital affair while governor, also said that there would be hearings if this happened with a Democratic president.
Said Sanford: “What you can’t do is be completely silent on something that is troubling.”
Rep. Mark Sanford (R-SC) told the Washington Post that Republicans are not accurately portraying their tax bill: It isn’t a middle-class tax cut, it’s a corporate one.
Said Sanford: “Fundamentally the bill has been mislabeled. From a truth in advertising standpoint it would have been a lot simpler if we just acknowledged really on this bill, which is it’s fundamentally a corporate tax reduction and restructuring bill, period.”
Rep. Mark Sanford (R-SC) told the Charleston Post & Courier that President Trump threatened to back a primary challenger against him if he didn’t back the GOP health care bill.
The intermediary was Budget Director Mick Mulvaney: “The president asked me to look you square in the eyes and to say that he hoped that you voted ‘no’ on this bill so he could run against you in 2018.”
Said Sanford: “I’ve never had anyone, over my time in politics, put it to me as directly as that.”
“I’m a dead man walking. If you’ve already been dead, you don’t fear it as much. I’ve been dead politically.”
— Rep. Mark Sanford (R-SC), quoted by Politico, on why he’s not afraid to criticize President Trump.
“In campaign world, rapid response is vital. In governance, it can be lethal if it’s in reaction to things small and unimportant. It just strikes me as crazy that the soon-to-be leader of the free world would be waking up each morning this weekend and tweeting comments about what someone said at a play in New York.”
— Rep. Mark Sanford (R-SC), on Facebook.
The New York Times runs a fantastic review of The Speechwriter: A Brief Education in Politics by Barton Swaim.
“Mr. Swaim is so talented a writer, and has such an eye for a telling detail, that you suspect you could put him in any workplace — chicken-processing plant, airport sunglass emporium, stoner skate park — and he would make it come alive in the best possible way. He happens to have great material in Governor Sanford, as demanding, disorganized, dissatisfied, conceited, odd, bullying and cheap a boss as a reader could hope for.”
Here’s a must-read: The Speechwriter: A Brief Education in Politics by Barton Swaim, a former aide to South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford (R).
“Everyone knows this kind of politician: a charismatic maverick who goes up against the system and its ways, but thinks he doesn’t have to live by the rules. Through his own experience as the speechwriter for a controversial governor, Barton Swaim tells the story of a band of believers who attach themselves to this sort of ambitious narcissist—and what happens when it all comes crashing down.”
Taegan Goddard
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire -- which for more than two decades has been one of the nation's most influential political news sites.
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