Weld brings presidential run to Worcester

WORCESTER -- Former governor and Republican presidential candidate Bill Weld was in town Tuesday, taking his message of bringing integrity and sound policies to Washington and basically, as he described it, "planting a flag" in opposition to the destructive actions he said President Donald Trump has wrought.

In a meeting with the Telegram & Gazette at Mercantile Center, wearing the work boots in which he had just toured Polar Park at Kelley Square, Weld, 74, said his ties to Central Massachusetts are strong.

"Worcester was kind of the unofficial capital of the Weld-Cellucci administration and (Lt. Gov.) Paul Cellucci really was a driving force," he said.

He listed other local notables with whom he worked closely, including David Forsberg, who served as Weld's secretary of health and human services; former U.S. Rep. Peter Blute; current Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito; and the late Dr. Aaron Lazare, chancellor and dean of University of Massachusetts Medical School, to name a few.

"You know, when it was time to relax, we would go to the Worcester Club and eat all the boar that we shot up in New Hampshire," continued Weld, an avid sportsman.

But it is his national campaign to oust Trump that has Weld's keenest interest now.

"I'm surprised more people aren't planting a flag to suggest that not all is well in Washington," Weld said. "And I think two things: One, they're doing a lot of stuff that's bad. And two, they're not doing stuff they should be doing."

Among the bad, he said, are the trillion-dollar annual deficits; ignoring climate change; "wrongheaded foreign policy consisting of insulting our European allies," and "seemingly wanting to help (Russian president Vladimir) Putin bring Eastern Europe and maybe ultimately Western Europe back into the Russian orbit, the opposite of the direction you should be going."

He called Trump's ripping up the Iran nuclear deal a "colossal blunder."

Domestically, "It's obvious that the rule of law has been compromised by Mr. Trump and his interference in the Justice Department," Weld said.

"So the president is playing with fire when he seeks to undercut that, and he says a free press is the enemy of the people. And an independent judiciary is the enemy of the people. That's right out of the dictator's handbook 101."

Weld says his decision to run for president wasn't a whim. He ran on a Libertarian ticket in 2016, for vice president, with presidential candidate New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson. The pair received nearly 4.5 million votes, although none in the Electoral College.

He also had considered running in 1996 and 2000.

Weld said his executive experience as two-term Massachusetts governor and in the private sector, and his international experience in business, as well as his time as head of the criminal division of the Justice Department in the Reagan administration, in which he dealt with narcotics and terrorism, make him well-suited to the country's top political job.

"Except for his work with hotels, Mr. Trump really entered the office with neither," he said.

If Trump is the Republican nominee and wins the election, "Steve Bannon has said you'll have four years of unrequited payback, with him being openly vindictive," Weld warned. "My reading of the tea leaves is that he now thinks Mr. Trump thinks he can do absolutely anything and get away with it. And it won't be pretty."

Weld said if the Democrats nominate anyone "near centrist," he would support the Democrat in the general election against another Trump term.

If the progressive wing of the Democratic Party gets the nomination, with Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren leading the ticket, Weld said, "The jury's out on that." He said it would "depend on what they would come to the table with."

Weld said his priorities as president would be building a zero-based budget to get rid of the trillion-dollar deficit; greatly increasing environmental initiatives, including measures to address climate change; and "reversing the president's action in ripping up treaties and insulting our allies and tilting towards Russia."

Before he headed off to his next stop, at Worcester State University, Weld said his political strategy was to enlarge the electorate who will vote in Republican primaries, bringing in younger voters and women across the board, not just moderate suburban women. His support for reproductive rights bona fides are still strong.

That's why he's concentrating on the 24 states that allow crossover voting, his path to success in his Massachusetts wins.

"I tell the younger voters that both the trillion-dollar deficit issue and the climate change issue, those are both guns aimed at their head in particular," he said.

"To govern is to choose," said Weld.

He hopes voters will choose a sharp change in Washington's current direction.

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