Washington (CNN) Former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld said he's launching a presidential exploratory committee to run in 2020 as a Republican.

"I hope to see the Republican Party assume once again the mantle of being the party of Lincoln. It upsets me that our energies as a society are being sapped by the President's culture of divisiveness in Washington," he said Friday in New Hampshire, adding later, "Because of the many concerns I've talked about today, I've established an exploratory committee ... as a Republican in the 2020 election."

Speaking at the "Politics & Eggs" breakfast in Bedford, New Hampshire, Weld called Donald Trump a "schoolyard bully," "unstable" and "a president whose priorities are skewed to the promotion of himself rather than toward the good of the country."

Though a number of Democratic candidates have joined the 2020 race in hopes of ultimately facing off against Trump in the general election, Weld is the first potential primary challenger to the President.

to take down Trump. History shows that presidents generally only face serious primary challenges when their approval rating within their own party is at 75% or below. Trump is currently far above this threshold. Weld will face an uphill battle in his efforts to take down Trump. History shows that presidents generally only face serious primary challenges when their approval rating within their own party is at 75% or below. Trump is currently far above this threshold.</s>Bill Weld has set up an exploratory committee for a presidential run in 2020 and may become a Republican primary challenger against Trump.</s>
• Former Massachusetts Governor Bill Weld announced his plans to launch an exploratory to challenge President Donald Trump in the 2020 GOP presidential primary.
• Weld served as Massachusetts’ governor from 1991 to 1997. More recently, he was on the 2016 Libertarian presidential ticket as Gary Johnson’s running mate.
• He would be the second candidate from Massachusetts to jump into the race, joining Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren.

Former Massachusetts Governor Bill Weld announced his plans to launch an exploratory challenge President Donald Trump in the 2020 Republican presidential primary, he would be the first candidate to give Trump a serious challenge from within his own party.

During a speech at the famous “Politics & Eggs” event in New Hampshire, Weld said he would be launching an exploratory committee because he “cannot sit quietly on the sidelines any longer.”

“We have a president whose priorities are skewed toward promotion of himself rather than toward the good of the country,” Weld said of Trump at the event.

“To compound matters, our President is simply too unstable to carry out the duties of the highest executive office – which include the specific duty to take care that the laws be faithfully executed – in a competent and professional matter,” Weld added. “He is simply in the wrong place.”

Read more: Former Republican senator Jeff Flake has decided he’s not going to challenge Trump for the Republican presidential nomination in 2020

Weld ran on the Libertarian Party ticket in 2016 as presidential candidate Gary Johnson’s running mate, only recently changing his official party affiliation back to Republican.

After graduating from Harvard Law School in 1970 and working in private practice, Weld’s career in public service started as a US Attorney for Massachusetts, prosecuting several high-profile public corruption and white collar criminal cases in the 1980s.

Weld was elected as Massachusetts’ Governor in 1991, the first Republican to serve in the position since 1975. A moderate, business-friendly governor, Weld enjoyed high levels of popularity among voters and was re-elected in a landslide in 1994 – even carrying the Democratic stronghold of Boston.

After leaving the Governor’s office, Weld launched an unsuccessful challenge to unseat Sen. John Kerry in 1996. Weld moved to New York in 2000, where he also ran for governor in 2006, but withdrew from the Republican primary.

Weld jumped back into politics as the Libertarian vice presidential nominee in 2016. Johnson and Weld garnered 3.28% of the United States popular vote, the best showing for a third party or independent candidate since 1992.

Now, Weld could take on Trump from the center of the Republican party. Other possible Republican primary challengers for Trump could include former Ohio Gov. John Kasich and current Maryland Governor Larry Hogan.

If he officially runs, Weld would be the second candidate from Massachusetts to jump into the race, joining Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren. Seth Moulton, a Democrat who represents Massachusetts’ 6th congressional district, is also rumoured to be considering a presidential run.</s>The former Massachusetts governor is the first Republican to challenge Trump for the 2020 nom.

Bill Weld, the former governor of Massachusetts and the 2016 Libertarian Party Vice-Presidential nominee who ran with Gary Johnson, has taken the first step toward challenging Donald Trump for the Republican Party’s nomination for president in 2020.

As the Hill reports, Weld announced on Friday that he is forming an exploratory committee to prepare the way for a possible presidential run, as a Republican, in 2020. Generally, an exploratory committee is a precursor toward an official announcement of a run for president, although it bears noting that Weld has not officially announced his candidacy and indeed may not do so if his exploratory committee finds that his candidacy isn’t viable.

Speaking in New Hampshire, Weld raised a complaint that has oft been leveled against Trump: that his mental state is simply not fit for the rigors of the job of president.

Weld, 73, is a businessman and politician who served as governor of Massachusetts, as a Republican, between 1991 and 1997.

Unlike most rank-and-file Republicans, Weld, though strongly conservative on economic issues, was and is largely liberal on social issues. In fact, so libertarian-leaning is Weld that the libertarian think-tank the Cato Institute has given him top grades for his fiscal conservatism and social liberalism.

And indeed, his libertarian leanings also got him onto the Libertarian Party ticket in 2016, as Weld was tapped to be the running mate of former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson, who had also governed his own state as a Republican. The Johnson-Weld ticket got nearly 4.5 million votes nationally, eclipsing Johnson’s 2012 popular vote total and marking the Libertarians’ most successful presidential run to date, and the most successful third-party candidacy since Ross Perot in 1996.

Probably not, say Hill writers Max Greenwood and John Bowden, who note that the Republican Party has largely – indeed, almost unanimously – rallied behind Trump. They suggest that neither Weld nor anybody can unseat Trump for the Republican nomination in 2020.

Similarly, as reported by the Inquisitr, Weld’s “small-l libertarian[ism],” as he himself describes it, as well as his shifting party loyalties, are going to hurt him, says Massachusetts GOP state party Chairman Steve Stepanek.</s>President Donald Trump might have a Republican challenger in 2020.

Former Massachusetts Governor Bill Weld was in New Hampshire to announce he has launched a presidential exploratory committee. He’s the first Republican to throw a hat at least close to the 2020 ring.

“I think our country is in grave peril, and I can’t sit any longer quietly on the sidelines,” Weld said Friday morning in Bedford.

But Weld comes with a unique political resume that’s already getting mixed reviews from New Hampshire Republicans he’d need if he wants to be successful in the first-in-the-nation primary state.

It’s hard to know how many, but there are Trump voters in New Hampshire and around the country who aren’t happy with the president. Like Russ Clancey of Manchester, who showed up at Saint Anselm’s Politics and Eggs breakfast, looking for an alternative.

“I believed what [Trump] was saying and then as soon as he got elected, Trump is basically one lie after another,” Clancey said.

And it’s also hard to know how viable a challenge could really be from within the president's own party. Weld isn’t actually running yet, just officially exploring for now, because he thinks putting himself out there could start to answer some of these questions about Republican voters.

Weld came out swinging against Trump, by calling the president a bully who is unfit to lead the country.

“We have a president whose priorities are skewed toward promotion of himself rather than toward the good of the country,” Weld said.

Weld was a two-term Republican governor of Massachusetts in the 1990s, yet he’s gone on to back Democrats for president and, in 2016, he ran as the Libertarian Vice Presidential nominee next to Gary Johnson.

Now, he’s switching back to Republican, a strategy that is already getting mixed reviews.

Former NH GOP Vice Chair Matt Mayberry introduced himself as, “I’m a veteran, I’m gay, I’m pro choice and a lifelong Republican,” when he took the microphone to ask Weld a question.

Not so much, it turns out. Mayberry wanted to know how Republicans could trust that Weld would govern as a Republican, given his diverse political history.

“Sorry for the tough question this morning, but it’s an important one,” Mayberry said.

Weld said he wants to do the best thing for the country, and “this is the most direct way for me to have an influence.” He told Mayberry he had strong Republican credentials, and running in the GOP primary would be his best shot at going toe to toe with Trump.

He also acknowledged his bid is a long shot, saying that candidates who challenge a seated president from within his own party don’t win.

But Weld also pointed out another fact he liked better: While the challenger may not win, a primary challenge can cause an incumbent to lose to the other party.

“That disturbs me,” Mayberry said. “One day of any Republican is better than any day of Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi.”

Of course, New Hampshire Trump supporters are disturbed by Weld’s announcement, too. Steve Stepanek, a former Trump campaign leader and now state party chair, said he doesn’t expect Weld’s campaign “to get very far among Republicans.”

Despite all this, Weld plans to be back in New Hampshire soon and he wondered if his announcement could encourage other Republicans to challenge Trump, too.</s>Former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld announced Friday that he has launched a committee to look at a possible 2020 White House run and Republican primary challenge against President Donald Trump.

Weld, the Libertarian Party’s 2016 vice presidential candidate, revealed his 2020 exploratory committee during a “Politics & Eggs” breakfast in Bedford, N. H., according to various news outlets.

The former governor reportedly told attendees that he had “seen enough of government” to start in the Oval Office Monday, if needed, WBUR reported.

Weld added that it “feels good to be back there with the 'R' next to (his) name,” confirming that any official run will be as a Republican candidate, according to the news outlet.

Weld, a 73-year-old former U.S. Attorney and Capitol Hill staffer, was first elected Massachusetts governor in 1990 and reelected in 1994 as a Republican.

He later mounted unsuccessful campaigns against then-U.S. Sen. John Kerry, a Democrat, in 1996, and for governor of New York in 2006.

This is a breaking news story and will be updated.</s>While 2020 can’t come soon enough for anyone with an IQ over 80, pundits and voters have focused on the loaded field of Democratic primary candidates, assuming that party unity would ensure Trump’s first round bye through to the Republican National Convention.

That might not be the case.

Former Republican governor of Massachusetts Bill Weld, 73, announced he has created a presidential exploratory committee, the first step toward an eventual presidential campaign.

Weld told reporters gathered at Politics & Eggs that “our president is simply too unstable to carry out the duties of the highest executive office in the land.” “I’m here because I think our country is in grave peril, and I cannot sit any longer quietly on the sidelines,” he added.

Though Trump is wildly unpopular. As America watches developments in Robert Mueller’s investigation, Trump’s national emergency has just begun. Weld, the former Libertarian VP candidate who supports legal abortion, has a no chance of securing the nomination. Even the #NeverTrump contingency of the GOP would be hard-pressed to throw their support behind the comparatively liberal Weld.

Still, Weld’s presence may prove damaging despite his uphill climb to the RNC. Trump, frequently provoked by slights real and imagined, would be likely to embarrass himself in response to a Weld quote via social media. In the especially unlikely event of a televised debate, Trump would be likely to find himself out of his depth. Weld, the federal prosecutor turned two-term governor who missed out on an ambassadorship to Mexico during the Clinton administration due to his support for needle exchanges and legal marijuana.

Weld is banking on fond memories of New Hampshire voters who remember him fondly from his time running the Bay State. The Libertarian who ran alongside Gary Johnson might find support in a state without motorcycle helmet laws.

The last two incumbents to face a serious primary challenge wound up losing. Here’s hoping history repeats itself.</s>Former Massachusetts Gov. William F. Weld is launching a presidential exploratory committee to challenge President Trump in the Republican primaries, saying the country is “in grave peril” and he “cannot sit quietly on the sidelines any longer.”

Weld becomes the first Republican to officially announce he is exploring a run against Trump, and sets up a potential match-up in the first-in-the-nation New Hampshire presidential primary and in other states.

In prepared remarks at the “Politics & Eggs” breakfast in Bedford, N. H., Weld delivered a blistering critique of Trump, saying “we have a president whose priorities are skewed toward promotion of himself rather than toward the good of the country.”

“To compound matters, our President is simply too unstable to carry out the duties of the highest executive office — which include the specific duty to take care that the laws be faithfully executed — in a competent and professional matter,” Weld said in his prepared remarks. “He is simply in the wrong place.”

Weld, who lives in Sharon but has a home in New Hampshire, was the Libertarian Party vice presidential candidate in 2016 but just last month switched party affiliation, going back to the Republican Party.

In his speech, the former federal prosecutor called out his own party for supporting Trump, saying “many Republicans exhibit all the symptoms of Stockholm Syndrome, identifying with their captor.”

“The truth is that we have wasted an enormous amount of time by humoring this President, indulging him in his narcissism and his compulsive, irrational behaviors,” Weld said.

The former governor, who served in Massachusetts from 1990 to 1997, did not mention the “impeachment” word but hinted he would like to see Trump removed even before the 2020 election.

“The situation is not yet hopeless but we do need a mid-course correction,” he said. “We don’t need six more years of the antics we have seen. We need to make a change, and install leaders who know that character counts.”

The 73-year-old former governor was set to make his announcement this morning in at the breakfast sponsored by Saint Anselm College and the New England Council.

Weld’s announcement is likely to trigger anger among President Trump and his supporters, who see the former governor as a flip-flopper who deserted the Republican Party. The New Hampshire GOP chairman told the Herald he doesn’t expect Weld to get a welcome reception from voters there, and polls show a vast majority of GOP voters back Trump.

But sources close to Weld say he is determined to make life difficult for Trump, even if his candidacy is a long shot.

While Weld was harshest in his criticism of Trump, he also singled out Democrats for drifting too far left toward socialism.

“We need the opposite of socialism,” he said. “In the federal budget, the two most important tasks are to cut spending and to cut taxes — and spending comes first.”

Weld laid out his positions on other issues, calling for less government intervention in health care and for more intervention to prevent climate change.</s>Another politician has announced that they’re running in 2020. This time it’s Bill Weld, the former governor of MA, and Gary Johnson’s running mate on the 2016 Libertarian ticket. Learn more about the Republican.

Welcome to the 2020 circus, Bill Weld! The former Massachusetts governor, 73, announced on February 15 that he would be challenging President Donald Trump in the primaries as a Republican. The Libertarian Republican has lost a number of elections, but does he have a real shot at replacing Trump as the Republican candidate for the presidency in the 2020 election? Let’s find out more about him:

1. He’s running because he wants to better the Republican Party: “I hope to see the Republican Party assume once again the mantle of being the party of Lincoln. It upsets me that our energies as a society are being sapped by the President’s culture of divisiveness in Washington,” he said February 15 in New Hampshire. “Because of the many concerns I’ve talked about today, I’ve established an exploratory committee … as a Republican in the 2020 election.”

2. He’s the first Republican to challenge Trump in the primaries. Plenty of democrats have already announced that they’re running in 2020, but Weld is the first republican to try to knock Trump out of the race during the primaries. He may have a harder time doing so than he thinks, however. Per CNN, sitting presidents are generally only in trouble when their approval rating within their party is below 75%. Trump is currently sitting at 89% nationally among republicans. Somehow.

3. He was the Governor of Massachusetts from 1991 to 1997. Weld resigned in 1997 after President Bill Clinton nominated him to be the US ambassador to Mexico. He later withdrew his name after he was blocked from a Senate hearing by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He also ran for senator of Massachusetts in 1996, but lost to John Kerry. Later, he moved to New York and ran for governor in 2005, losing.

4. He ran for vice president in 2016. No, really. Weld ran on the Libertarian ticket with Gary Johnson in 2016, making them the first two former governors to run as Libertarians since 1948. While they, of course, lost, they received 4.5 million votes — the most votes ever for a Libertarian ticket. That’s actually the best any third party has done since the 1990s.

5. Though he’s a Republican, he has a history of supporting Democrats. Though he was literally running against her in 2016, Weld publicly supported for Hillary Clinton, even telling Rachel Maddow at one point that he was “not sure anybody is more qualified” than her to be president. He served as Mitt Romney’s co-chair in New York when he ran for president in 2008, but after Romney dropped out, he endorsed Barack Obama for president — not John McCain. Interesting…</s>Former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld is launching an exploratory committee for a possible 2020 presidential bid.

The Republican governor announced Friday in New Hampshire that he’s considering challenging President Donald Trump for the GOP nomination in the primary race.

“I hope to see the Republican Party assume once again the mantle of being the party of Lincoln. It upsets me that our energies as a society are being sapped by the President’s culture of divisiveness in Washington,” Weld said in a statement. “Because of the many concerns, I’ve established an exploratory committee ... as a Republican in the 2020 election.”

Trump is heavily expected to be the Republican nominee for president in 2020. Only one elected president has ever sought but did not receive his party’s nomination for a second term: Franklin Pierce, 14th U.S. President from 1853 to 1857.

According to CNN, Trump still has strong approval ratings among Republicans, recently scoring 89 percent in a Gallup poll. In N.H., Trump was polling slightly lower at 83 percent among GOP voters in an October University of New Hampshire poll.

“I think there definitely is a path to victory, but you want to test the market a bit. I look forward to talking to a variety of people. You want to make sure the motion doesn’t fail for lack of a second but it won’t,” Weld told the New Hampshire Union Leader on Thursday. “Everyone I have talked to says you are running as an R, count me in.”

Weld, known as fiscally conservative but socially liberal, was governor of Massachusetts from 1991 to 1997.

According to Fox News, the 73-year-old Weld switched parties and ran in 2016 as the Libertarian vice presidential nominee and running mate for Libertarian presidential candidate and former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson. Weld recently returned to the GOP, re-registering as a Republican in the Boston suburb of Canton.

A few other Republicans are also rumored as possible challengers to Trump. Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan is planning a trip to Iowa on behalf of “Never Trump” Republicans; Ohio Gov. John Kasich said he’s considering a run; and Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse has reportedly shown “interest.”

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Former Massachusetts Governor Bill Weld announces the launching of a presidential exploratory committee to run for President of the United States in the 2020 United States presidential election.