Dream On: ABC's Dowd Calls Weld Primary Challenge a 'Really Smart Political Move'

Ryan Foley | February 18, 2019
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Just days after announcing that he was forming an exploratory committee to run against President Trump in the Republican primary, longshot Presidential candidate Bill Weld appears to have at least one passionate supporter in the media: ABC's Matthew Dowd.  Even after his fellow panelists on This Week made compelling arguments explaining why Weld's candidacy will ultimately not go anywhere, Dowd still described Weld's primary challenge to the President as a "really smart political move" and maintained that Weld "would get 18, 19, 20, or 22 percent of the vote" and force President Trump into debates.  He also argued that Weld "presents an argument for a lot of Republicans out there that defines the Republican Party in a certain way that's not Donald Trump, and I think there's a lot of Republicans in the aftermath of Donald Trump that are worried about who is the Republican Party, what do we fundamentally stand for, and what are we going to do?"  An article in Reason sums up what Weld stands for and it doesn't match up with what most Republicans fundamentally stand for.  The article describes Weld as a "pro-choice, pro-amnesty, 'Libertarian for Life' who backed Barack Obama in 2008."  Nonetheless, Dowd admitted that Weld has a "very narrow path" to capturing the Republican nomination but argued that he had a better chance of becoming President than Howard Schultz. 

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