GOP ex-gov rebukes Trump after 'heartbreaking' attack on Dem candidate: 'Uncalled for'

A former Republican South Carolina governor who once backed President Donald Trump tore into him for attacking a Democratic Senate candidate.

David Beasley, who led South Carolina in the 1990s and later ran the United Nations World Food Programme, appeared on CNN's "Erin Burnett OutFront" on Tuesday to condemn Trump's remarks about Annie Andrews, the Democrat challenging Sen. Darline Graham (R-SC).

"I have been all over the world dealing with war and conflict, and I come back home, and I see the divisiveness that's taking place in America," Beasley said. "And it breaks your heart because we're in a trajectory that's tearing this country apart."

Beasley's comments came after Trump on Monday referred to Andrews as Annie "Trannie" Andrews in a Truth Social post, using the anti-transgender slur three times while touting his "complete and total endorsement" of Graham. Andrews, a pediatrician, is not transgender, CNN noted.

Beasley acknowledged that campaign season is "a contact sport" but urged candidates to "show respect, civility, not hate, not lies, not deception."

Burnett noted that Trump had also called a Senate candidate in Nebraska a "sleazebag" and labeled Michigan's Muslim Senate candidate a "Democratic jihadist." She asked how destructive that language is coming from the president.

"It's heartbreaking. It's terrible. It's sad," Beasley said. "I don't care which side of the aisle you're on, whether you're a Republican or a Democrat, the president of the United States ought to be the leader that shows a role model and respecting others... this is just uncalled for. And it's way, way across the line."

He compared the tone to what he has witnessed abroad. "It's the rhetoric that I've seen in other countries," Beasley said. "When people stop talking to one another and start talking past one another, and the name calling, and it creates so much division, and it rips a nation apart."