Outgoing Rep. Mark Sanford (R-S. C.) on Thursday fired back at President Trump for calling him a “nasty guy” in a meeting…
Outgoing Rep. Mark Sanford (R-S. C.) on Thursday fired back at President Trump for calling him a “nasty guy” in a meeting with Republican lawmakers this week, saying that the GOP does not need to be “subservient” to the president.
“What he somehow expects is 100 percent allegiance to him, not the ideas that you ran on, or the constitutional framework of debate that was set up indeed by the founding fathers here that is so important to generating ideas better to people’s lives,” Sanford said on HLN’s “S. E. Cupp Unfiltered.”
Sanford later added that lawmakers do not need to be “subservient to an executive branch” and that officials in his party are “probably” not standing up to Trump enough.
“What I’ve seen in the past year and a half has been too much of that on too many occasions,” Sanford said.
He insisted that ability to disagree is “a sign of health.”
His comments came a couple days after Trump criticized Sanford in a meeting on Capitol Hill. Trump later claimed that the Congressional Republicans in the room “applauded and laughed loudly” when he mentioned Sanford, an assertion that multiple people refuted.
Trump’s attack came shortly after Sanford lost his bid for reelection in a South Carolina primary, falling short of votes to state Rep. Katie Arrington. Sanford, a frequent critic of Trump’s, has attributed part of his defeat to his lack of loyalty to the president.
The president did not support him in the primary and Sanford had been a frequent critic of the president.
Since his defeat, Sanford has escalated his critique of Trump and the GOP. He’s likened the GOP’s support for Trump to a “cancerous growth,” and has also said that the lack of consequences for Trump when he lies will have “harmful consequences” on Washington.
