Christine O’Donnell, who stunned the political world in 2010 by defeating an establishment Senate candidate in the Delaware Republican primary, returned to the political debate Thursday to denounce Donald Trump’s presidential bid.
“I have no desire to get in the fray. Now it looks like he’s going to be the nominee. I can’t sit back anymore. I can’t hold my tongue,” O’Donnell told CNN’s Brooke Baldwin, explaining that she understands why working-class voters are moving to him. “What I do not get why the evangelical leaders are.”
O’Donnell lost the 2010 Senate race by a wide margin after beating then-Rep. Mike Castle — a former governor — in the GOP primary. Running as a tea party candidate O’Donnell won considerable attention that fall with a television ad pushing back on suggestions that she dabbled in witchcraft. “I am not a witch,” said she declared to the camera.
On Thursday O’Donnell said she could not tolerate Trump as the nominee of her party.
“He did nothing to liberate the middle class from political correctness until he decided to run for president,” she said.
“He’s not actually doing anything except inciting riots,” she added, a reference to Trump’s comments Wednesday where he said his supporters would “riot” if he was denied the Republican party’s presidential nomination if showed up at the Republican convention this summer with the requisite 1,237 necessary to win the GOP nomination — and was denied by party insiders.
O’Donnell has largely been out of the public eye since she lost that 2010 race to now Democratic Sen. Chris Coons. Several Republicans later pointed to the Delaware race as an example of how the GOP squandered races they should have won because of undisciplined anti-establishment candidates.
O’Donnell even had some kind words for Hillary Clinton.
“Clinton, if you look at some of her policies, she’s a moderate. She’s not a far-left liberal,” O’Donnell said. “I’m going to get in so much trouble for saying that. I’m not saying I would vote for Hillary Clinton by any chance. I’m saying I don’t know what I would do if Trump became the nominee.”