Utah Senator Mike Lee has called on Donald Trump to step down as the Republican nominee for president.
In a passionate video recorded at his home and posted to his Facebook page, the junior Senator from Utah, whose brother was named as a short-lister for Trump’s Supreme Court nomination, said, “It’s occurred to me, on countless occasions, today that if anyone spoke to my wife, or my daughter, or my mother, or any of my five sisters, the way Mr. Trump has spoken to women, I wouldn’t hire that person. I wouldn’t hire that person, wouldn’t want to be associated with that person, and I certainly don’t think I’d feel comfortable hiring that person to be the leader of the free world.”
“As we’ve been asked to settle, we’ve been given a huge series of distractions,” Lee said. “Mr. Trump, himself, has acknowledged this and identified this series of events tonight as a mere ‘distraction.’ Well, with all due respect, sir, you, sir, are the distraction, your conduct, sir, is the distraction. It’s the distraction from the very principles that will help us win in November. You, yourself, sir, Mr. Trump, have stated repeatedly that goal, the objective, has got to be to defeat Hillary Clinton in November. I couldn’t agree more. It’s for precisely that reason, Mr. Trump, that I respectfully ask you, with all due respect, to step aside. Step down. Allow someone else to carry the banner of these principles. These principles that have made our country great. These principles that will stand as a beacon of hope to the American family, rather than weighing down the American people. Rather than weighing down the very principles that will help us win in November.”
Lee concluded, “It’s time for us all to come together, it’s time to expect more. There’s no need for us to settle. There will be time to figure out the ‘who,’ right now we’ve got to be focused on the ‘what.’ And that ‘what’ has to involve our greatest, our most noble principles. Let’s move forward. My fellow Americans, and my fellow Republicans, let’s find a candidate who can carry that banner without distraction and without settling.”
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