Scott Walker on Ideal GOP Presidential Candidate: ‘Got To Be an Outsider’
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Whitney Curtis/Getty Images(MADISON, Wis.) — During an interview with ABC’s Jonathan Karl for This Week, Wisconsin Republican Gov. Scott Walker — while offering praise for his GOP colleagues — dismissed Sen. Ted Cruz, Sen. Rand Paul, Sen. Marco Rubio and Rep. Paul Ryan as the ideal 2016 Republican presidential nominee.
“I think it’s got to be an outsider. I think both the presidential and the vice presidential nominee should either be a former or current governor, people who have done successful things in their states, who have taken on big reforms, who are ready to move America forward,” Walker responded when asked by Karl to describe the “ideal Republican presidential candidate in 2016.”
During the interview in Madison, Wis., Karl asked the governor specifically about Rubio, Cruz and Paul. Walker implied they were all too closely associated with the Beltway to be the ideal nominee.
“All good guys, but … it’s got to be somebody who’s viewed as being exceptionally removed from Washington,” the Wisconsin governor said.
Walker — asked by Karl about Rep. Paul Ryan — lavished praise on the 2012 GOP vice presidential candidate, but said “yes,” — according to his criteria — Paul would not be the ideal GOP 2016 presidential nominee.
“I love Paul Ryan. Paul Ryan, if he had a fan club, I’d be the president of that,” he said.
In terms of his own future, Walker — who seemed to closely fit his own definition of the ideal GOP nominee — told ABC News he would not rule out a presidential run in 2016.
“I don’t rule anything out,” Walker said.
Walker also criticized the strategy — encouraged by Cruz — that led to the government shutdown earlier this year, and said “I think so” when asked if that strategy was a mistake by Republicans.
Walker praised state-level Republicans, but criticized congressional Republicans for their ostensible refusal to compromise, which he called a “real problem.”
“Republicans, at the state level, are showing we’re much more optimistic, we’re speaking in terms that are much more relevant to where real voters are at,” he said.
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