For­mer con­gress­man warns Pence not to ‘blow­torch’ career with Trump crit­i­cism

Former congressman warns Pence not to ‘blowtorch’ career with Trump criticism

For­mer Rep. Joe Walsh warned for­mer Vice Pres­i­dent Mike Pence that his crit­i­cisms of 2024 pres­i­den­tial can­di­date Don­ald Trump could end his career.
Walsh, for­mer­ly a Repub­li­can rep­re­sen­ta­tive out of Illi­nois, spoke from per­son­al expe­ri­ence. He chal­lenged Trump in the 2020 Repub­li­can pri­ma­ry, only to end his cam­paign in Feb­ru­ary of that elec­tion year. Now, with Pence dis­clos­ing he will not endorse Trump, Walsh offered some advice on CNN News­Night on Fri­day.
“I can’t empha­size this enough. As a Repub­li­can, if you pub­licly oppose Trump, you’re done as a Repub­li­can,” Walsh said. “When I came out six years ago and pub­licly stood against Don­ald Trump, I took a blow­torch to my career, but I also knew I could nev­er, ever run as a Repub­li­can again. Mike Pence today just did that.”

In 2016, Walsh vot­ed for the Trump/Pence tick­et, only to become a pub­lic crit­ic of the pres­i­dent when he was up for reelec­tion. Walsh pre­dict­ed that Pence’s polit­i­cal career is over in his inter­view with CNN’ …