Advertisement Republican Bill Weld makes it official: He’s challenging Trump for GOP presidential nomination Former Massachusetts governor releases campaign announcement video Share Shares Copy Link Copy

Two months after former Massachusetts Gov. William Weld launched an exploratory committee to pursue the possibility of challenging President Donald Trump for the Republican presidential nomination, he is now an officially declared candidate.Weld made the announcement Monday evening in a three-minute video, which can be viewed below. In the video, a narrator recounts Weld's experience leading Massachusetts and shows clips of some of Trump’s most controversial comments.In an interview following the announcement, Weld said he is not in the race simply to hurt Trump's reelection chances. “I think it’s do-able,” Weld said. “The aim is to defeat him, and I wouldn’t feel right if I allowed him to go unchallenged.”Weld, 73, called himself a "happy warrior," while saying that Trump has "demons.""Why does he feel obligated to to attack little people personally?" Weld asked.The video says that Weld was the first Republican governor of Massachusetts in more than 20 years, calls him a “crime fighter” who as governor cut taxes, reformed the welfare program and balanced the state’s budget, while making the state safer. The video shows clips of his television advertisement during his 1990 campaign for the office.Weld announced his exploratory committee on Feb. 15 at a Politics and Eggs breakfast at the Bedford Village Inn, calling Trump unstable, vindictive, “a schoolyard bully” and unfit for the presidency.State Republican Chair Steve Stepanek said at the time Weld would not be welcomed by the NHGOP because as the vice presidential nominee of the Libertarian Party in 2016, he declared that he would be a “Libertarian for life.”Although Weld made his announcement Monday, he has been officially on file as a candidate since April 1. Federal Election Commission records show that Weld filed a statement of candidacy and a statement of organization for the Weld 2020 Presidential Campaign Committee on that date.Weld will follow up today's announcement with two full days of campaigning in the Granite State beginning Tuesday.He will begin with three stops at popular diners and a café: the Red Arrow in Manchester at 11 a.m.; the Airport Diner in Manchester at 11:45 a.m. and Norton’s classic Café in Nashua at 1 p.m.Weld will deliver a foreign policy address before the World Affairs Council at the Southern New Hampshire hospitality building at 7 p.m.On Wednesday, Weld will lead what his campaign is calling a conversation about job growth at the Londonderry Town Hall with Town Manager Kevin Smith and local business leaders.He will then attend a house party with Kerry and James Stap in Windham at 6:30 p.m. View Weld's announcement video below. In addition to issuing the video, Weld made his announcement on CNN's "The Lead" program.Longtime Trump confidante and former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, had a succinct response to Weld's announcement:"Clown," he wrote in a text to WMUR. But Weld said in the interview that he is not in the race to be a spoiler, but to win.“I think it’s do-able,” Weld said. “The reason it looks like a steep hill is that the state Republican Party chairs have been told not to let anyone else in. But that’s the top state Republicans, not the people who are going to be making the decision. The electorate will be a lot broader than that.”“The aim is to defeat him, and I wouldn’t feel right if I allowed him to go unchallenged.”Weld said Republican and independent voters will see plenty of differences between him and the president, not just on character issues, but also on policy issues.“Trump is not an economic conservative. I am,” Weld said. “I’m an environmentalist. Clean air and clean water are important to me, important to millennials and they are not important to Mr. Trump.“This is going to be about what I want to do,” he said. “I want to deal with the jobs that are being lost to automation. Those people need replacement skill sets, and we should have an equivalent to a GI bill over the next 10 years to help them receive better and more modern replacement skills.” He said the nation must also have more online learning.Weld said Trump’s recent threat to send undocumented immigrants to so-called sanctuary cities is “just so over the top.“He shows that he’s someone who just wants to do the wrong thing,” Weld said. “Sometimes I think of the president as a small, one-man crime wave.”While Trump reported raising $30 million in the first quarter of this year, Weld said he is confident that his campaign will be “adequately funded.” He said he will soon visit California to raise money and speak to voters.He said he hopes to attract voters in New Hampshire and elsewhere who supported Mitt Romney in 2012 and Jeb Bush in 2016.He said he spoke with former Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who Weld said, told him that “we are old friends” and wished Weld well.Longtime New Hampshire Republican strategist Tom Rath is a friend and supporter of Kasich, but he also considers Weld a friend.WMUR asked Rath to assess Weld’s chances of pulling off a historic upset.“He’s certainly a credible individual,” Rath said. “And he was a good governor with a good background. He’s genuine and he is also a good politician who got elected in a very tough state. “Having said that, he understands how difficult any kind of successful campaign at the moment in New Hampshire would be against Trump. But he feels there is a real need for another voice to be heard and offered as an option.“He’s realistic about his chances, but on the other hand, he is steadfast in his determination to not allow Trump go without opposition,” Rath said. “And right now, he’s the only one who has stepped up to do it.”