Rep. Charlie Dent (R-PA) said in a Wednesday interview that he won’t vote for his party’s nominee, saying that Donald Trump has gone “too far.”
Dent told The Morning Call that as a result of Trump’s “incendiary comments” regarding Mexicans, Muslims, women, and the Khan family, he won’t be voting for the GOP candidate in November. He also cited Trump’s “lack of policy specifics and, frankly, the lack of policy knowledge” as a cause for concern.
The reporter noted that Dent had raised those criticisms before and asked Dent to confirm that he’s now willing to say he won’t vote for the nominee.
“This is too much,” Dent confirmed. “Yeah. A bridge too far.”
Dent joins a growing number of Republican officials who have confirmed that they won’t be voting for Donald Trump, including Rep. Richard Hanna (R-NY) and Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL).
He also noted Trump’s attacks on “prominent Republicans,” most likely referring to the nominee’s refusal to endorse House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) and Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) in their re-election campaigns. “I mean, Reince Priebus must be beside himself right now.” Dent has withheld his own endorsement from Trump, saying that the nominee “has a lot of persuading to do” first.
Dent said he wouldn’t be voting for Hillary Clinton, either, citing her use of a private email server as secretary of state as one reason he considers the Democratic nominee to be “seriously flawed.”
“There are plenty of good people to write in,” he told the Call. “I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it.”
Only because Trump’s poll numbers are down. Should have disavowed last year to show any integrity.
That’s three House members.
Old saying: “When the water reaches the maindeck, follow the rats.”
Since this guy and some of the others are in the House of Reprehensibles, as each of them declaims DT as their party’s nominee, I would like to know if he or she is up for re-election in this cycle or if, through gerrymandering, his or her seat is safely Republican.
I applaud the acton of declaiming if there is some skin in the game, but if these folks don’t have a contested, difficult election to deal with, their declaiming doesn’t have much guts behind it.
The trickle has begun of ®s trying to save their seats.