Mark Sanford: ‘We Need to Have a Conversation About What It Means to Be a Republican’

On Monday, former Gov. Mark Sanford (R-SC) discussed his recently announced run for the 2020 GOP presidential nomination.

Sanford revealed on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that he is challenging Trump for the nomination because the Republican Party has lost its way and he wants to bring it back.

“I’m running because I think we need to have a conversation about what it means to be a Republican,” he told host Joe Scarborough, a former Republican congressman. “I think that we’ve lost our way as a party.”

He later added, “I think that economic matters matter. I would also say that we’ve got to have a conversation about the way in which we engage with the rest of the world. Trade and free trade used to be a linchpin and what the Republican Party was about. It, too, has gone by the wayside. I would say that we’ve got to have a conversation about institutions and sort of a conservative framework for the way in which the bodies talk to each other. We’ve lost that or are in the process of losing that. When the president goes out and says, you know, the fed chair is an enemy of the state, wow, we’re challenging institutions in a dangerous way. And that’s been the glue that’s held the balance of power that the Founding Fathers put in place. And finally, I’d say we’ve got have a conversation about tone. You can say the right thing but in the wrong way you can turn folks off.”

Follow Trent Baker on Twitter @MagnifiTrent