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- Former Oklahoma Rep. Mickey Edwards, known as a staunch conservative during his days on Capitol Hill, said Thursday he was quitting the Republican Party because it had become a “cult” under President Donald Trump.
- In an interview with KFOR-TV, the Oklahoma City-based NBC affiliate, Edwards decried Republicans who backed Trump’s efforts for months to overturn President-elect Joe Biden’s election victory, even after the deadly Capitol riots that claimed the lives of five people.
- “It has become a cult,” he said. “It is no longer a political party. It is a cult. It is the kind of cult that when the cult leader does anything, no matter what it is or how bad it is. horrible, they vote, ”he said.
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Former Oklahoma Rep. Mickey Edwards, known as a staunch conservative during his days on Capitol Hill, said Thursday he was quitting the Republican Party because it had “become a cult” under President Donald Trump.
In an interview with KFOR-TV, the Oklahoma City-based NBC affiliate, and in a personal essay on The Bulwark, Edwards lamented the current GOP leadership, criticizing Republicans who sought to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. and even after the murderer. Riots on the Capitol on January 6.
“There is no longer a Republican party that has values, principles, morals, whatever,” he told KFOR-TV. “We thought taxes could be too high and harmful, we thought regulations could be too heavy and harmful, we should have a strong army – I agree with all of that. I still agree with that. “
Longtime Trump critic Edwards, who served in Congress from 1977 to 1993 and chaired the House Republican Political Committee, co-wrote a letter with former GOP Representative Charles Djou of Hawaii l last year who criticized the president as “an ill-trained man who lacks basic self-control.” In the letter, Edwards and Djou also supported President-elect Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign.
Since his election defeat in November, Trump has consistently questioned the legitimacy of the election and his allies have sought to invalidate mail-in votes in major swing states. For months, the president’s legal team sparked a plethora of lawsuits across the country in an attempt to overturn the election, which came to nothing.
In the KFOR-TV interview, Edwards spoke out against Trump’s influence over GOP members of the Oklahoma congressional delegation who continued to challenge Biden’s election after the heartbreaking riots.
“It has become a cult,” he said. “It’s not a political party anymore. It’s a cult. It’s the kind of cult that when the cult leader does anything, no matter what it is, or how bad it is. is horrible, they vote, ”Edwards said.
He added: “They voted to question the election results even after people entered the Capitol, tried to kill them and killed a policeman who was trying to protect them.”
Edwards registered as an Independent, but is hopeful the GOP will reorient itself in the future, specifically calling on GOP Senators who initially led the effort to overturn the election results.
“You’ve got the Josh Hawleys, the Ted Cruz’s, and the James Lankfords, and these people who leave their personal ambition and the fear of voters behind, they want to inherit those voters, and that’s leading them down some real dark paths,” he said. . “I don’t know what the future is, but for me it’s outside the Republican Party.”
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