Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry delivered a blistering critique of Donald Trump Wednesday, decrying the real estate mogul’s “barking carnival act” and likening it to a “cancer.”
“Let no one be mistaken – Donald Trump’s candidacy is a cancer on conservatism, and it must be clearly diagnosed, excised and discarded,” the 2016 presidential hopeful said during remarks in Washington D.C. “It cannot be pacified or ignored, for it will destroy a set of principles that has lifted more people out of poverty than any force in the history of the civilized world – the cause of conservatism.”
Perry, who is also seeking the GOP nomination for president, called for Trump to drop out of the race on Saturday after Trump made comments questioning John McCain’s military service.
“Donald Trump was born into privilege. He received deferments to avoid service in Vietnam. He breathes the free air thousands of heroes died protecting. And he couldn’t have endured for five minutes what John McCain endured for five and a half years,” Perry said Wednesday.
And he said that Trump’s lack of religious faith is also disqualifying.
“Most telling to me is not Mr. Trump’s bombast, his refusal to show any remorse for his comments about Senator McCain, but his admission that there is not a single time in his life that he sought the forgiveness of God,” Perry said. “A man too arrogant, too self-absorbed, to seek God’s forgiveness is precisely the type of leader John Adams prayed would never occupy the White House.”
Trump ripped into Perry Tuesday, suggesting that the Texas governor donned new eyewear after his disastrous 2012 presidential run in order to look more erudite.
“He put on glasses so people think he’s smart,” Trump said. “People can see through the glasses.”
