Republican presidential candidate Will Hurd called out the idea of other candidates defending former President Trump amid his legal troubles, saying that “kissing his butt is not going to help you.”

During an appearance on MSNBC’s “Inside With Jen Psaki,” host Jen Psaki asked Hurd what he considers the most effective argument Republicans have against Trump: either he’s unelectable in a general election, or a moral argument that the former president isn’t somebody who should be considered for president.

“Well, the one thing I know is not effective is kissing his butt, like many of my other opponents are doing. The fact — like, free advice to the other candidates is, if Donald Trump is leading in the polls, and he’s your opponent, then kissing his butt is not going to help you,” Hurd told Psaki. “It’s not going to help you win.”

Hurd, a former U.S. congressman from Texas, also told Psaki that there’s going to be a “good chunk” of people that will cast a vote for the president regardless of the controversy surrounding him, adding that President Biden will be reelected to office if Trump is the party’s nominee.

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“A lot can change between now and then. And the fact that Donald Trump is afraid to go on the debate stage and answer for being a proven loser — the last time he won was in 2016,” Hurd added. “He’s not — he doesn’t want to have to defend … his poor record. He doesn’t want to have to defend [the fact] that all of these issues he’s dealing with, these legal issues, are self-inflicted wounds.”

“He doesn’t want to have to — have to defend that,” the former congressman concluded. “And that’s what I’m looking forward to talking about, not only his problems, but articulating what the GOP needs to be doing, so that we prevent a trend that has been happening for the last 20 years. And that’s losing the general election popular vote.”

Hurd’s remarks come nearly a week after Trump and 18 of his allies were indicted by a Georgia grand jury on charges tied to efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

Trump, who announced his third presidential campaign last November, has been hit with three other indictments this year relating to his business dealings, handling of classified documents and his actions in the aftermath of the 2020 election.

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