- Former Oklahoma Representative Mickey Edwards, known as an obstinate conservative during his days on Capitol Hill, said on Thursday that he is leaving the Republican Party because he has become a “cult” under President Donald Trump.
- In an interview with Oklahoma City-based NBC affiliate KFOR-TV, Edwards condemned Republicans who supported Trump’s month-long effort to topple President Joe Biden’s election victory, even after the deadly Capitol riots that cost five lives .
- “It has become a cult,” he said. “It is no longer a political party. It is a cult. It is the kind of cult that when the cult leader does anything, no matter what it is, or how terrible it is, they vote,” he said.
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Former Oklahoma Representative Mickey Edwards, known as an obstinate conservative during his days on Capitol Hill, said on Thursday that he is leaving the Republican Party because he “became a cult” under President Donald Trump.
In an interview with KFOR-TV, the Oklahoma City-based NBC affiliate, and in a personal essay at The Bulwark, Edwards lamented the current direction of the Republican Party, criticizing Republicans who sought to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and even after the deadly Riots on Capitol Hill on January 6.
“There is no more Republican Party that has values, principles, morals, anything,” he told KFOR-TV. “We thought that taxes could be very high and harmful, we thought that regulation could be very high and harmful, we should have a strong army – I agreed with all of that. I still agree with that.”
A longtime critic of Trump, Edwards, who served in Congress from 1977 to 1993 and chaired the House Republican Policy Committee, wrote a letter with former Republican deputy Charles Djou of Hawaii last year that criticized the president as ” a malformed man who lacks basic self-control. “In the letter, Edwards and Djou also supported President Elect Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign.
Since his defeat in the November elections, Trump has consistently questioned the legitimacy of the election and his allies have sought to invalidate postal votes in decisive states. For months, the president’s legal team launched a plethora of lawsuits across the country seeking to annul the election, which led nowhere.
In the KFOR-TV interview, Edwards condemned Trump’s influence over the Republican Party members of the Oklahoma Congressional delegation who continued to challenge Biden’s election after the tumultuous riots.
“It has become a cult,” he said. “It is no longer a political party. It is a sect. It is the type of sect that when the sect leader does anything, no matter what it is, or how terrible it is, they vote,” said Edwards.
He added: “They voted to question the results of the election even after people entered the Capitol, tried to kill them and killed a policeman who was trying to protect them.”
Edwards registered as an independent, but expects the Republican Party to reorient in the future, specifically calling on the Republican Party senators who initially led the effort to overturn the election results.
“You have Josh Hawleys, Ted Cruzes and James Lankfords, and these people who are leaving their personal ambition, and the fear of voters, want to inherit these voters, and this is leading them on truly dark paths,” he said. “I don’t know what the future is, but for me it is outside the Republican Party.”