A former aide to John McCain, who served both as the Arizona senator’s chief of staff and a senior advisor on his 2008 presidential campaign, made clear Tuesday that he would vote for Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump in the general election.
“I’m with her,” Mark Salter tweeted, referring to Clinton’s campaign slogan, after noting the likely nomination of Trump, “a guy who reads the National Enquirer and thinks it’s on the level.”
the GOP is going to nominate for President a guy who reads the National Enquirer and thinks it’s on the level. I’m with her.
— Mark Salter (@MarkSalter55) May 3, 2016
Salter has not kept his distaste for Trump a secret. He is written a number of op-eds warning of the damage he could do to the Republican Party and to the country at large, including a February Real Clear Politics piece that warned, “He’s trying to make us the worst we can be to satisfy his own vainglory.”
But if Trump defeats Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), as expected in Indiana Tuesday, the effort to stop him will be as good as over, and for those who have pledged #NeverTrump, the abstract hypothetical of being stuck between him and Clinton will soon become a concrete reality.
Up until now, some Republican Trump foes have balked at the idea of saying outright they’ll support Clinton over Trump in a general election. Salter, for what it’s worth, hinted in his February RCP essay that this is something they were going to have to come to terms with.
“If you can see him plainly and you love our country, you must vote against him. Even if that means electing Hillary Clinton,” he wrote then.
