Scott Walker #Unintimidated, Except With Trump

MADISON, Wis. — Gov. Scott Walker, whose presidential primary front-runner status ended with a spectacular 71-day flame out in early fall 2015, has yet to join establishment Republicans across Wisconsin trying to stop the near-inevitable nomination of Donald Trump as the GOP’s fall presidential candidate. Even a series of memorable attacks against Walker and the Republican-controlled Wisconsin state legislature’s dismal failures, haven’t been enough to get the governor to endorse any of Trump’s fellow contenders.

“Scott Walker’s ‘Unintimidated’ when it comes to stealing money from public school students and forcing the unemployed to take drug tests to access public benefits,” said Scot Ross, One Wisconsin Now Executive Director. “But when it comes to Donald Trump, you’ve got a better chance of seeing a wall along the Canadian border than Scott Walker criticizing Donald Trump by name.”

According to a new web video produced by One Wisconsin Now, using footage from a speech by Trump, the former steak huckster and operator of the predatory “Trump University,” is the one who’s unintimidated. Walker’s reticience comes despite his fellow elected Republicans in Wisconsin and right wing talk radio going all out to try and derail the man who cut his political chops by shaving the head of World Wrestling Entertainment owner Vince McMahon at Wrestlemania XXIII. The right wing Club for Growth, whose notoriously-close relationship with Walker were at the center of the John Doe criminal investigation, have even placed a $1 million media buy attacking Trump in Wisconsin.

One Wisconsin Now’s video is taken from footage at a Oskaloosa, Iowa rally from summer 2015, where Trump said of Wisconsin under Walker: “Wisconsin’s in turmoil … The roads are a disaster … The schools are a disaster … The hospitals and education (sic) is a disaster … They projected a $1 billion surplus and it turns out to be a deficit of $2.2 billion … They borrowed so much money, that a big portion of their budget is paying for it. So what he’s doing is kicking it down the road.”

Walker made the largest cuts to public education in Wisconsin history, stealing $1 billion from K-12 and another $1 billion from higher education. Under Walker, Wisconsin has risen to 3rd highest in the nation of percent of graduates with student loan debt, while rejecting a plan that could help hundreds of thousands of student loan borrowers refinance their loans at lower market rates, just like you can a mortgage. Wisconsin’s finances have been a constant catastrophe and transportation has suffered. Meanwhile, Wisconsin has lingered at the bottom of job creation in the midwest, despite Walker’s promise to create 250,000 jobs by the end of 2014.

“Given the way he has lambasted the job Republicans in Wisconsin have done, one could understand why Robin Vos and members of the legislature have lined up to oppose Trump,” said Ross. “Scott Walker spent 2015 running for the nomination for president and now Scott Walker’s spending 2016 running from his party’s nominee for president.”