Congressman Paul Mitchell of Michigan announced in a CNN interview with Jake Tapper that he is leaving the Republican Party and becoming an Independent.
“I’m a conservative. I’m a fiscal conservative. I believe in small government,” Mitchell, who will retire as the representative of Michigan’s 10th Congressional District at the end of this term, said. “I’m going to stand on my principles. And yes, I will take abuse from both the far-left and the far-right. In my opinion, the extremes from both parties are dragging their parties, and this country, off a cliff.”
Mitchell has been skeptical of lame duck president Donald Trump’s claims of fraud in the 2020 elections. On November 29th, he tweeted, “Oh my God. . @realDonaldTrump Please for the sake of our Nation please drop these arguments without evidence or factual basis. #stopthestupid”.
“The majority of Americans are in the middle,” Mitchell told Tapper. “The majority of Americans want solutions to problems and want us to address them, not see who can have a political ‘win’, not see who can grab political power for all its worth and actually do something to solve a problem for the American People. And frankly, we haven’t done enough of that.”
Mitchell got emotional when talking about his adopted son who was born in Russia and ongoing Republican attempts to deny immigrants entry to the United States and pathways to citizenship.
Tapper brought up Mitchell’s objections to Trump’s attacks on the so-called “Squad” of four Democratic Congresswomen who are people of color, one of whom is an immigrant.
“When [Trump] told them to go back where they came from, you called that out,” Tapper noted. “But again, you’re a conservative Republican–in your heart, you’re a conservative. If there’s not a place for you in the Republican Party, where are people like you supposed to go?”
“I’m not sure what I do next, but let me make a comment about ‘send ’em back’ because it still enrages me. My youngest son, Jake, we adopted him from Russia eight years ago, and, ah,” Mitchell said, getting choked up, “anybody that would tell me he’s not a citizen, he doesn’t have the same rights you or I have, I’d have to tell you, I’d knock them on their ass. That’s not what our nation stands for.
“So I’m going to work with candidates that reflect principles that our country should stand for. I will–those that respect other people, be they immigrants, new citizens, born here or not because our country is better than what we’ve seen.”