Arizona GOP House speaker fires back at Trump for calling him a 'RINO': He has 'no idea' what courage is
Responding to comments from Donald Trump calling him a “RINO coward" over his testimony to the Jan. 6 committee, Republican Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers took at a shot at the former president while speaking to ABC News' This Week.
“Someone born how he was and raised how he was, he has no idea what a hard life is and what people have to go through in the real world,” Bowers said. “He has no idea what courage is.”
“[Trump and his allies] rule by thuggery and intimidation, so they found a niche, they found a way and it’s fear,” Bowers said. “People can use fear, demagogues like to use fear as a weapon, and they weaponize everything and we all know it."
“That’s not leadership to me," he added.
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Bowers is facing off with Trump-endorsed David Farnsworth in Tuesday’s primary election for the state Senate seat from District 10.
In another interview with NBC News, Bowers said that if he loses the primary, it's likely due to his lack of loyalty to Trump.
“The fact that I would break ranks and somehow find what the former president did was unacceptable, that’s like I broke some sort of taboo and I did break a taboo. It’s kind of a cultic thing that you have to be in with the cult and here’s our doctrine and you can’t go beyond the doctrine and I say no," he said.
That being said, Bowers thinks Trump doesn't have the influence he once had.
“I think America’s tired,” Bowers said. “There’s some absolutely forceful, qualified, morally defensible and upright people and that’s what I want. That’s what I want for my party and that’s what I want to see.”