Three prominent Republicans won’t be backing Donald Trump in his re-election bid this year.
General Colin Powell announced he won’t be supporting Trump and a report says George W. Bush and Mitt Romney won’t be backing Trump either:
Recent events involving Trump’s response to protests over police treatment of African Americans and the coronavirus pandemic have inspired an urgency among Republicans to decide whether to publicly discuss their voting plans for November, according to the Times.
People familiar with George W. Bush’s thinking told the newspaper he will not back the president’s reelection and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R), his brother, is not sure how he will vote.
Romney will not support Trump and is considering writing in his wife’s name again or casting a different ballot, according to the Times. The 2012 Republican nominee told The Atlantic in February he would not back the president after he voted to convict him of abuse of power during the Senate impeachment trial.
Colin Powell –the least surprising on three– said he will back Biden because of Trump’s lies. While he still considers himself a Republican, Powell is a man who hasn’t voted for a Republican since at least 2004. In 2016, Powell said he was voting for Hillary. In 2008 and 2016, he endorsed Barack Obama over McCain and Romney. A man who thinks McCain and Romney are too conservative isn’t going to cast a vote for Donald Trump.
Trump responded to Colin Powell’s decision:
Colin Powell, a real stiff who was very responsible for getting us into the disastrous Middle East Wars, just announced he will be voting for another stiff, Sleepy Joe Biden. Didn’t Powell say that Iraq had “weapons of mass destruction?” They didn’t, but off we went to WAR!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 7, 2020
Trump also took a swipe at Mitt Romney this morning:
Tremendous sincerity, what a guy. Hard to believe, with this kind of political talent, his numbers would “tank” so badly in Utah! https://t.co/KqHsHmSRKo
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 8, 2020
This comes on the heels of Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski’s (R) comments that she’s struggling with whether or not she can back President Trump’s re-election.
