‘This Guy is a Phony’: C-SPAN Caller Grills Anti-CPAC Conference Founder On How You Can Be a Republican and Oppose Trump

Heath Mayo, the founder of the conservative group Principles First, joined C-SPAN’s Washington Journal this week and took questions from callers.

Mayo’s group is hosting an anti-CPAC conference in Washington, DC with its own slate of speakers including George Conway, Brad Raffensperger, and Adam Kinzinger.

A Republican caller from California had a strongly worded question for Mayo on Thursday, asking, “How much of democracy do we have and what does he think about this lawsuit against Trump brought by the attorney general of New York, heard by this disjointed judge?”

“It will basically bankrupt Trump. Does he think that’s democracy? That’s Russia. That’s Putin. That’s Marxist. When you are pursuing your political opponents and want to have them in jail, let the voters decide. For God’s sake C-SPAN, get off of this hating Trump that you are on because you are. Ever since Trump became the apparent nominee, you have had guest after guest after guest. Why don’t you have Alan Dershowitz on there once in a while? He wrote a good book and he is a hero, is a brave man. This guy is a phony,” the caller added.

Mayo replied, “I mean, I appreciate the call from the caller, actually.”

“I mean, these are the kinds of conversations that we should be having. I would just say, I mean, this policing, who is a Republican and who isn’t. I don’t know that that’s going to be a successful political strategy,” he continued, adding:

Even if this guy gets to see it through here. You know, just to his points, I mean, it’s not about necessarily hate Trump, right? I’ve sat here for I don’t know how long it’s been now going through point by point why I now as a Republican, a vote that you used to get right, I disagree with fundamental things that the Republican Party now stands for.

We’re not. You said we’re Putin. It is not Russia or communism to hold political leaders accountable to the law. In fact, that’s the opposite of Russia. They would never put on trial a, you know, Vladimir Putin.

Donald Trump is being held to the standard of the law. There are laws. There are facts that have to be presented according to law. And if that is proven beyond a reasonable doubt to a jury of his peers, that’s the justice system. That is, that is the rule of law. That’s what has made America great. That’s something that is the envy of the world that countries like Russia wish they had. When they got accused of something.

“Trump is not a victim. The country has, America has given Trump every opportunity. The guy owns golf courses. He’s super wealthy. This guy could afford world-class, legal defense attorneys. And he’s still under this problem with the law because you know what? At the end of the day, he has broken the law. The facts are the facts,” Mayo continued, concluding:

And in court, when that when those things are put before a judge in an impartial jury, it’s being they’re being proven, and that at some point Republicans need to look in the mirror and say, maybe the problem is inside the House. And so I, I respect the call, I respect the disagreement. And I would just encourage, that that caller to, to really think about if, if, you know, if you really want to win elections and you really want to advance principles of freedom and limited government, if Trump is really getting it done for you because I don’t think he is.

Watch the full clip above via C-SPAN.

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