Sen. Mike Crapo (R-ID) pulled his endorsement of Donald Trump in early October over the 2005 tape revealing the GOP nominee’s vulgar comments about women, but just two weeks later the Republican senator now says he will vote for Trump after all.
“The choice we still have today and the choice we will have is between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton,” Crapo told conservative radio host Neal Larson on Friday, according to the Idaho State Journal. “In that context, I have to tell you, though I thought and felt we needed a different choice, that’s not what we’re going to get, and we cannot elect Hillary Clinton for many reasons. … Given that choice, I will vote for the Republican ticket: Trump and (vice presidential nominee Mike) Pence.”
Crapo said that he wants a president “who will appoint strong Supreme Court justices, who will interpret the Constitution as it was written and who will help lead us to a stronger free market and a more limited government.”
“In that context, I don’t think the choice is that hard when we realize the decision this country must make,” he said, according to the Idaho State Journal.
These comments come about two weeks after Crapo rescinded his endorsement of Trump and urged him to drop out of the race in the wake of a 2005 tape in which Trump brags about grabbing and kissing women without permission.
“I have reached a decision that I can no longer endorse Donald Trump. This is not a decision that I have reached lightly, but his pattern of behavior has left me no choice. His repeated actions and comments toward women have been disrespectful, profane and demeaning,” Crapo said in a statement at the time. “I have spent more than two decades working on domestic violence prevention. Trump’s most recent excuse of ‘locker room talk’ is completely unacceptable and is inconsistent with protecting women from abusive, disparaging treatment.”
Crapo is not the first Republican lawmaker to say that he will vote for Trump after calling on the Republican nominee to drop out of the race. Sen. John Thune (R-SD), Sen. Deb Fischer (R-NE), Rep. Scott Garrett (R-NJ), and Rep. Bradley Byrne (R-AL), all called for Mike Pence to replace Trump as the Republican nominee following the tape’s release, and later said they would still vote for Trump.
