Trump will lose in 2020, former CT Gov. Lowell Weicker predicts

FILE - In this Aug. 3, 1973, file photo, the Senate Watergate Committee hearings continueon Capitol Hill in Washington.. From left are: Sen. Lowell P. Weicker, Jr; Sen. Edward J. Gurney, Fred Thompson, Sen. Howard H. Baker, Jr; Rufus Edmisten, Sen. Sam Ervin; Sam Dash, Sen. Joseph M. Montoya, Sen. Daniel K. Inouye was absent. Testifying is Lt. Gen. Vernon Walters. In 1973, millions of Americans tuned in to what Variety called "the hottest daytime soap opera" _ the Senate Watergate hearings that eventually led to President Richard Nixon's resignation. For multiple reasons, notably a transformed media landscape, there's unlikely to be a similar communal experience when the House impeachment inquiry targeting Donald Trump goes on national television starting Wednesday (AP Photo/File) less FILE - In this Aug. 3, 1973, file photo, the Senate Watergate Committee hearings continueon Capitol Hill in Washington.. From left are: Sen. Lowell P. Weicker, Jr; Sen. Edward J. Gurney, Fred Thompson, Sen. ... more Photo: Associated Press Photo: Associated Press Image 1 of / 15 Caption Close Trump will lose in 2020, former CT Gov. Lowell Weicker predicts 1 / 15 Back to Gallery

Former Connecticut Gov. Lowell Weicker is predicting a Democratic president in 2020.

“I think he’s a disgrace,” Weicker said of President Donald Trump. “His overall performance and statements are not to be believed.”

Most people assume Trump will run in the 2020 election, but Weicker doesn’t make that assumption.

“He doesn’t want to lose,” said the former governor, now 88 years old.

“I suspect you’ll find if he runs he’ll be defeated in the next election,” Weicker said.

Weicker, a longtime Republican, became an independent “more than a decade ago,” he said, because the party went “way off to the right.”

As a freshman senator from Connecticut in 1973, Weicker sat on the Watergate Committee and was the first Republican Senator to call for then-president Richard Nixon’s resignation.

“People in Connecticut were very much behind President Nixon, like the rest of the country,” Weicker told Connecticut Magazine in 2012. “They thought he could do no wrong, and when I was in Connecticut, I would get flipped the bird all the time, whether it was on the streets or in the car, for the role that I was playing. After Watergate was over, then the needle goes all the way the other way, and I’ve got huge favorability ratings.”

Weicker said he’s “not following” the current impeachment hearings very closely, though he said impeaching the president would be premature.

“Nothing has been proven so far of deserving impeachment,” he said.

In addition to his stint as governor, Weicker was first selectman of Greenwich, state representative and U.S. Senator and Representative. He lives in Old Lyme.