‘He is the God that they worship’: House Dem says crowded GOP primary only helps Trump

Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.) on Sunday assessed that a crowded Republican primary field will only benefit former President Trump because some in the GOP see Trump as “the God that they worship.”

“The more crowded the Republican field, the more advantageous to Donald Trump because there is a significant segment of the Republican electorate who is unwaveringly loyal to Donald Trump,” Torres said as a panelist on ABC’s “This Week.” “He is the God that they worship.”

When asked how much of a threat he sees Trump being in 2024, Torres said Trump represented some of the “worst” of American politics.

“Donald Trump is the Freudian head of the Republican Party. He represents what is worst about American politics, and the person we saw at the Town Hall is exactly who Trump is, always has been and always will be. And so, we should stop being surprised of the vulgar and crude snake-oil salesmanship of Donald Trump,” Torres told co-anchor Jonathan Karl.

“He conspicuously refused to say whether he wants Ukraine to win in the war. So, here you have a likely Republican presidential nominee whose moral campus is so broken that he is more offended by a CNN host than a war criminal like Vladimir Putin,” he added, referring to a raucous town hall Trump did with the network this week.

Torres said he expected President Biden to “overwhelmingly dominate” the Democratic primary. Biden has so far not drawn any formidable challengers but Democrat Marianne Williamson has launched a bid to the left of Biden and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. also formally launched a contest against Biden in the primary.

Recent national polls show Trump as the leading frontrunner in the GOP primary by double-digit percentage points ahead of what could be his biggest challenger, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) who has not formally announced a run but is widely expected to.

The only other declared Republican candidates are former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy.

Former GOP Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, who was also on the ABC panel, agreed with Torres’ assessment that a crowded primary could only help Trump and cited that as the reason why he took a pass on running for the White House.

“I didn’t want to see a multi-car pileup, that we have too many candidates and do the same thing we did in 2016. But I don’t think too many people are following that advice, looks like a lot of folks are going to be jumping in,” Hogan said.