Republican presidential candidate Will Hurd said former President Donald Trump is to blame for Republicans’ recent defeats at the federal level.
The former Texas congressman and CIA officer spoke to the crowd at the Des Moines Register Political Soapbox at the state fair for about six minutes before taking questions from the crowd.
He spoke about China, the fentanyl crisis, the U.S.’s withdrawal from Afghanistan and Trump, who he blames for weakening Republican control in the federal government.
"Donald Trump lost the House in 2018. He lost the Senate and the White House in 2020, and he prevented a red wave from happening in 2022," Hurd said.
However, Hurd did not comment at the Soapbox on Trump’s recent indictments for his role in trying to overturn the 2020 election.
Last month at the Republican Party of Iowa's Lincoln dinner, Hurd was booed by the crowd after he said Trump was running for a second term to "stay out of prison."
But in front of several dozen attendees at the Iowa State Fair, when Hurd told the crowd that he believes Trump lost the 2020 election, he was met with cheers.
Hurd fielded several questions regarding China, the U.S.'s withdrawal from Afghanistan and the fentanyl crisis.
His previous congressional district in Texas ran along the U.S.-Mexico border where cartels are smuggling mass quantities of illicit fentanyl into the country, which is helping to driving the country's overdose crisis.
“I think we start by treating fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction," Hurd said. "We would not allow precursor elements of a dirty bomb coming into our country. So why are we allowing a poison like fentanyl from coming into our country, we also need to treat drug trafficking organizations and also human smugglers like terrorist organizations.”
