I’m with her: Republican congressman Hanna says he’s voting for Clinton, saying Trump ‘cannot lead this country’
New York Representative Richard Hanna on Tuesday became the first Republican member of Congress to back Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, citing his discomfort with GOP standard-bearer Donald Trump.
“He is unfit to serve our party and cannot lead this country,” Hanna said about Trump in an op-ed for Syracuse.com.
Hanna’s move came after a day of growing tension between Trump and top House Republican Paul Ryan, who told donors that a candidate “can’t just run a vague platitude election, hopefully win a personality contest, and then try to bring in transformational, once-in-a-generation reform to an unsuspecting country.”
Trump took a swipe at Ryan in return, thanking the speaker’s August 9 primary opponent for his “kind words,” apparently in defence of Trump’s proposal to temporarily ban Muslim immigration to the U.S.
It wasn’t clear whether Hanna’s move was a sign of more defections to come, or an outlier. The upstate moderate is retiring at the end of his term, easing the political cost of crossing Trump.
Hanna didn’t just say he was refusing to vote for Trump - he said he would vote for Clinton.
But Representative Charlie Dent of Pennsylvania, one of several Republican House members who have said they will not vote for Trump, said he won’t be voting for Clinton either.
“I don’t see other members moving in that direction,” said Dent. “I don’t believe that many Republicans will take their marching orders from President Obama on Donald Trump or any other matter.”
“While I disagree with her on many issues, I will vote for Mrs Clinton.” Hanna said. “I will be hopeful and resolute in my belief that being a good American who loves his country is far more important than parties or winning and losing.”
Trump’s derision of the Muslim parents—whose son he has called a hero—also drew a rebuke from Senator John McCain of Arizona and other lawmakers, but the 2008 Republican presidential nominee stopped short of withdrawing his support for Trump.
Trump last summer said former Vietnam prisoner of war McCain wasn’t a hero because he was captured, before going on to win his party’s nomination.
President Barack Obama told reporters Tuesday that many Republicans’ denunciations, when paired with continued support, “ring hollow.”
“If you are repeatedly having to say in very strong terms that what he has said is unacceptable, then why are you still endorsing him?” said Obama.
Trump’s running mate, Mike Pence, has sought to stop the political bleeding. As a former House Republican, Pence is one of the billionaire’s strongest links to Capitol Hill. Reassuring and rallying Republican lawmakers there could help Trump shore up his standing against Clinton.
“Donald Trump and I believe that Captain Humayun Khan is an American hero and his family, like all Gold Star families, should be cherished by every American,” Pence said in a statement Sunday.
In another defection Monday, top Jeb Bush adviser Sally Bradshaw said she was leaving the GOP to become an independent. “I can’t look my children in the eye and tell them I voted for Donald Trump,” Bradshaw told CNN in an e-mail.
