Democratic presidential candidate Tom Steyer jabs at Donald Trump, Scott Walker

Tom Steyer is a California billionaire and environmental activist who spent millions of dollars on television ads pushing for the impeachment of President Donald Trump.

Now, he's running for president.

The Democrat brought his campaign to Milwaukee on Wednesday to talk with voters on the city's south side, participate in a forum with the American Federation of Teachers and speak at a nighttime town hall.  

During an interview with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Steyer wasn't shy about offering opinions.

He called former Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker "a standard-bearer for bad ideas," vowed to "break the corporate stranglehold" on politics and labeled the president as "corrupt" and "a crook."

And while meeting with a dozen voters over breakfast at Nuevo Mercado El Rey, Steyer said the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency "is an organization that is out of control and has been encouraged to be a terrorist organization. I mean, that's what Trump wants ... he's trying to terrorize people."

Asked to elaborate on his comments about ICE, Steyer said: "They employed terror as a tactic for politics. They are intentionally trying to scare people and then publicize that fear as a way of preventing people from coming here. They use terror as a tactic."

During the forum with teachers at Milwaukee Area Technical College, Steyer called for term limits for Congress, and the ability for voters to make laws through a national referendum system. He backed "a public option" on health insurance rather than a Medicare-for-all system.

"Why don't we make it good, prove it's good and let them choose it," he said.

Steyer said the country is wealthy enough to "have quality public education from pre-K through college" and that he was "extremely skeptical of for-profit education." 

He said student borrowers should be able to refinance their loans at lower interest rates. 

Steyer, a Democratic mega-donor, has enough money and organizing ability to make his case in a national campaign.

He has already spent nearly $47.6 million on the race.

But he acknowledged that just having the means to run doesn't lead to automatic success, pointing to Starbucks founder Howard Schultz's failed plan to run as an independent for president.

Steyer pushes the point that he has something different to say and that people can trust him to back it up.

Steyer is a longshot to get the nomination, but he has earned a spot on the debate stage. He's running hard on combating climate change and reforming the political system.

Steyer may be something new as a candidate, but he is hardly an unknown quantity in politics. He has concentrated on his "Need to Impeach" movement and two major organizing groups, "NextGen America" and "For Our Future."

Steyer's first Trump impeachment ad aired in October 2017.

Asked if the reasons for impeachment have changed over time, Steyer said, "No."

"He's corrupt," Steyer said. "He puts himself ahead of the American people. He uses his office to enrich and advantage himself. And he obstructs justice to cover it up."

So with all this on his plate, impeachment, political organizing, why run?

Steyer said he decided to after watching the first two debates.

"I didn't think people were telling the truth about what's really going on in the United States," he said.

He calls running for president "my favorite thing ever."

But running for president isn't easy. On Monday, a Steyer staffer in South Carolina quit after being accused of stealing volunteer data from the presidential campaign of U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris.

Steyer told reporters that he called to apologize to Harris and left a message. He said the campaign suspended the staffer immediately after hearing of the allegation and the data was never used.

"As far as I'm concerned, everything that we could do to make sure nothing bad happened was done," he said.

Whatever happens in the primaries, Steyer is sticking with the Democrats and will support the nominee.

"There is no chance I'll run as a third party," he said.

And he's also willing to make a bet on how Wisconsin will vote for president in 2020.

"We're going to win Wisconsin," he said. "I'll bet you a beer, right now. I'll bet you a Schlitz."