Major GOP Donor: Clinton Reached Out Personally To Secure My Endorsement

A Hewlett Packard executive and major Republican donor endorsed Hillary Clinton on Tuesday, saying that Clinton reached out to her personally a few weeks ago, The New York Times reported.

Meg Whitman, the president and CEO of HP, told the Times that she believed Trump was a “threat” and that she planned to make a “substantial” donation to the Clinton campaign.

“I will vote for Hillary, I will talk to my Republican friends about helping her, and I will donate to her campaign and try to raise money for her,” Whitman told The Times.

Whitman’s endorsement shows that Clinton has been reaching out to major GOP figures who are disillusioned by Trump. Whitman said she would help Clinton continue her efforts to reach out to Republican donors.

It was reported in June that Whitman hinted in a closed-door meeting that she’d support Clinton. In that meeting, she also reportedly compared Trump to Hitler.

She told The New York Times she stands by those comments, echoing President Barack Obama’s words that Trump is a “demagogue”

Whitman also made her endorsement public on Linkedin, writing that though she is a “proud Republican,” she has to put principle over party.

“As a proud Republican, casting my vote for President has usually been a simple matter,” she wrote. “This year is different. To vote Republican out of party loyalty alone would be to endorse a candidacy that I believe has exploited anger, grievance, xenophobia and racial division. Donald Trump’s demagoguery has undermined the fabric of our national character.”