A former Massachusetts governor officially announced his presidential bid to challenge President Donald Trump for the nomination for the Republican party.

Bill Weld went on CNN with Jake Tapper to explain why he was mounting an unlikely attempt to unseat the president from his re-election in 2020.

"I really think if we have six more years of the same stuff we've had out of the White House the last two years, that would be a political tragedy and I would fear for the Republic," said the 74 year-old Weld, "so I would be ashamed of myself if I didn't raise my hand and run."

Tapper challenged Weld by listing off polling numbers that show Trump is highly popular within the Republican party, including his latest financial campaign statement that showed he had already raised historic donations for his re-election.

"What we have now is a president that mocks the rule of law, I spent seven years in the Justice Department trying to keep the politics out of law enforcement - he's trying to put it in," Weld said.

"A president who says we don't need a free press, who says climate change is a complete hoax," he added, "he's not paying attention, I doubt very much that he's made a study of any of those issues."

Weld said that he is a very fiscally economic conservative and criticized Trump for not even pretending to be fiscally conservative.

Weld was the governor of Massachusetts for two terms and worked as the head of the criminal division at the U.S. States Attorney office under Ronald Reagan's administration. He had said in February that he was thinking about running against Trump.

Here's the interview with Weld on CNN: