lifelong Republican and former Oklahoma Congressman Mickey Edwards said on Thursday that he’s leaving the GOP, saying it has “no morals” and has become “a cult.”
“I no longer consider himself a Republican,” Edward said. “It’s gone. I mean there is no Republican Party anymore that has values, principles, morals, anything,” he added, according to local NBC Affiliate Chanel 4.
Edwards, who served in the U.S. House of Representatives for 16 years, said he was proud to lead his party until Trump turned it into a cult, and blasted his fellow Republicans for lying about the election results.
“The members of Congress knew better. They knew better. Lankford knew better. Members of the house delegation knew better,” Edwards said. “They knew the results, they had the information. They saw that it was Republican Trump supporters all across the country who were saying, ‘no, we lost.’”
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“This has become a cult. It’s no longer a political party. It’s a cult. It’s the kind of a cult that when the leader of the cult does anything, no matter what it is, or how awful it is, they voted,” Edwards said. “They voted to question the election results even after people came into the Capitol, tried to kill them and killed a police officer who was trying to protect them. And they did that.”
Edwards has chosen to leave the party, and has now registered as an independent. He said he hopes its leaders will soon find the courage to do what’s right.
“You’ve got the Josh Hawleys, and the Ted Cruzes and the James Lankfords, and these people who are letting their personal ambition, and fear of the voters, they want to inherit those voters, and it’s leading them to real dark paths. So I don’t know what the future is,” Edwards said, “but for me it’s outside of the Republican Party.”
