Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers (R) on Sunday said he would never vote for former President Trump again, reversing earlier claims that he would back Trump in a run against President Biden.
“I will never vote for him, but I won’t have to.” Because I think America is tired and there are some absolutely strong, skilled, morally defensible and honest people, and that’s what I want. That’s what I want in my party and that’s what I want to see,” Bowers told moderator Jonathan Karl during an interview on ABC’s “This Week.”
The Arizona lawmaker called Trump a “demagogue” who maintains his power over his base through “crimes and intimidation.”
“I have sometimes thought that someone born the way he was, raised the way he was—he has no idea what a hard life is. And what people have to experience in reality – in the real world. He has no idea what courage is,” Bowers said.
Bowers’ comments were a reversal of remarks he made in June, when he said he would back the former president in a 2020 rematch.
“If he’s the nominee, if he goes up against Biden, I’d vote for him again. Simply because what he did the first time, before COVID, was so good for the county. I think it was,” Bowers told The Associated Press before testifying in June before a special House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attacks on the U.S. Capitol.
Testifying before the House panel, Bowers rejected the former president’s claims that the two men discussed a rigged 2020 presidential election in Arizona.
Bowers said members of his own party called him a “traitor” after his appearance before the committee. Trump called the lawmaker a “coward.”
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On Sunday, Bowers said he hoped Trump would never return to power.
“I sure hope not. I certainly don’t trust that power he would exercise.
Bowers is running for the Arizona state Senate in this year’s midterm elections, and Trump has endorsed his challenger, David Farnsworth.
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