Retired GOP Sen. Alan Simpson (Wyo.) called former President Trump a “vicious animal who has poisoned our democracy” in comments included in a new book.
In “Thank You for Your Servitude: Donald Trump’s Washington and the Price of Submission,” journalist Mark Leibovich interviewed Simpson, 90, who criticized the current Republican Party and called it a “cult.”
“We’re not really talking about common sense or even politics anymore in my party,” Simpson said, according to Insider, which reviewed the book.
Simpson, who served in the Senate from 1979 to 1997 and last week received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, voted for Trump in the 2016 election but voted against him in 2020, according to Insider.
The former senator said Trump’s hijacking of the Republican Party was a “tragedy.”
Simpson is currently backing Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) in her reelection campaign after she became a lightning rod for Trump’s fury after voting to impeach him for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
The congresswoman faces a slew of challengers in her primary race next month, including from Trump-endorsed Harriet Hageman, who previously ran unsuccessfully for governor in 2018.
Cheney has spoken out passionately against the events of Jan. 6 and the mob of pro-Trump supporters who sought to overturn certification of the 2020 election, which Trump continues to falsely claim was stolen. Cheney is also the vice chair of the House select committee investigating the Capitol attack.
In an interview with NBC News last month, Simpson said Cheney is standing up against “a wrecking ball of democracy.”
“This guy is so full of himself that he would overturn every kind of rule of law or Constitutional process because of his own ego, which is twisted,” Simpson told NBC. “I’ll never vote for him again — that’s for goddamn sure.”