Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker (R) declared the country needs “a fighter, not just an Ivy Leaguer” while expressing that he wasn’t afraid of any of the other GOP candidates and dismissed criticism of his lack of a college degree as an “elitist, government knows best, top-down approach” while arguing “we’ve had [an] Ivy League-trained lawyer in the White House for the last six years…[who has] done a pretty lousy job leading this country” and on Tuesday’s “Kelly File” on the Fox News Channel.
After seeing a clip of former Vermont Governor Howard Dean (D) criticizing Walker’s lack of a degree, Walker stated “that’s kind of the elitist, government knows best, top-down approach from Washington we’ve heard for years. And I don’t know about you, Megyn, but we’ve had [an] Ivy League-trained lawyer in the White House for the last six years who was pretty good at reading off the teleprompter, but done a pretty lousy job leading this country.”
He continued “I think there’s a lot of Americans out there that scratch their head and say, we have people who’ve help found Microsoft, Apple, Facebook, plenty of other successful businesses, enterprises across this country who did exactly the same sort of thing I did, was have an opportunity to start a career, an opportunity to start a business, senior year of college, went out and did it.”
Later, in a portion of the interview released exclusively on Kelly’s Facebook page, Walker said he was not afraid of anybody in the GOP field and would focus on Hillary Clinton. When Kelly joked that Hillary went to Yale, Walker responded “all the more reason to put someone in who’s a fighter, not just an Ivy Leaguer. Someone who’s a fighter.”
He continued, “we’re looking for strong people, not only in Iowa, but New Hampshire, South Carolina, other states. If we’re going to seriously look at exploring a race for president, we want to have the top people in there. So, we’re serious about playing in New Hampshire as we are in the other early states.”
In the broadcast interview, Walker also said that recent protests outside his house where his grandparents currently live was something that “in the end, it backfires, because good people, at least here in the Midwest realize you can have your disagreements, but really taking it out in front of someone’s home, particularly with elderly parents, that’s a little too much.”
He added that a Washington Post article about his college years is “one of those amazing things where I think the more the left works themselves up in a tither, like you saw at the protests in front of my home, like you see with issues like this, they think there has to be some more to this, that somehow I couldn’t have possibly left to take a job at the American Red Cross, there had to be something more to the story.”
Regarding his reported boredom in one class, Walker argued “an early-morning class where half the students were probably asleep, I don’t know. That’s not an uncommon practice. I think people want to judge what have you done lately.”
When asked if he wished he had been clearer when he fielded a question on evolution in London, he responded “no, I think what I should have said is, I was there on the taxpayers’ dime to do trade and investment. I told that group up front, it’s why I didn’t talk about foreign policy. And I think the taxpayers of Wisconsin would have been upset…I have no problem answering the question I answered it, like you said after the fact. I think God created the earth. I think science and my faith aren’t incompatible…but I also think, that if you’re there on official business, you should stick to official business and not take the bait from reporters out there, particularly from some from the UK.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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