Sanford loses South Carolina election because of frustration with GOP base: analyst
The ouster of seasoned US Congressman Mark Sanford, a vocal critic of President Donald Trump, is an indicator that the average GOP voter is “very very frustrated with the Republican establishment,” says a former US Senate candidate and political pundit.
In an interview with Press TV on Wednesday, Mark Dankof, who is also a broadcaster and pastor in San Antonio, Texas, said the frustration with the GOP establishment is what Trump has “capitalized on” and won him the US presidency.
The average working class citizen was “tired of big government, they were tired of globalism and Trump capitalized on all of that,” however, Trump “has absolutely betrayed the very constituency who elected him,” he continued.
“Trump has allowed the Israeli lobby to highjack his foreign policy, I think the John Bolton and Nikki Haley appointments prove that. I think the cancellation of the nuclear deal with Iran proves that. Everything Trump has done in that department, basically, in my judgment, violates his promise to have an America first foreign policy.”
Vocal GOP Congressman loses primary
Sanford, a vocal critic of Trump, lost a Republican congressional primary in South Carolina on Tuesday, after Trump urged voters to punish Sanford's disloyalty by tossing him from office.
A few hours before polls closed, Trump tweeted that Sanford was "nothing but trouble" and "very unhelpful to me." He backed Sanford's pro-Trump challenger, state legislator Katie Arrington, for November's congressional elections.
The upset of Sanford, a member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, was the latest sign of Trump's firm grip on the Republican Party. The onetime insurgent has made allegiance to his leadership a litmus test in many Republican races.
Sanford had been critical of Trump at times, saying he "fanned the flames" of intolerance and decrying his disregard for facts. But during the campaign, he ran ads saying how often he voted with the president.
That was not enough for Trump, who also mocked Sanford with a reference to a 2009 scandal when the then-governor disappeared for days before surfacing to say he was "hiking the Appalachian Trail." Later, Sanford admitted he was involved in an extramarital affair in Argentina.
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