Sen. John McCain has withdrawn his support for Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump following the disclosure of a video recording in which the candidate made lewd comments about women.
While McCain and Trump’s differences are well documented, the Senator initially agreed to support Trump out of respect for the Republican party delegates who elected him in the primary. McCain decided to withdraw his support after the Washington Post published a video of Trump making vulgar comments towards women to former Access Hollywood journalist Billy Bush Friday.
“As I said yesterday, there are no excuses for Donald Trump’s offensive and demeaning comments in the just released video; no woman should ever be victimized by this kind of inappropriate behavior,” said McCain in a statement released Saturday. “He alone bears the burden of his conduct and alone should suffer the consequences.”
McCain noted that he has questioned Trumps’ character after the nominee’s comments toward prisoners of war, the family of deceased U.S. soldier Humayun Khan, past comments on women and “outrageous statements” regarding the Central Park Five case from earlier this week.
“I have wanted to support the candidate our party nominated. He was not my choice, but as a past nominee, I thought it was important I respect the fact that Donald Trump won a majority of the delegates by the rules our party set. I thought I owed his supporters that deference,” said the statement. “But Donald Trump’s behavior this week, concluding with the disclosure of his demeaning comments about women and his boasts about sexual assaults, make it impossible to continue to offer even conditional support for his candidacy.”
McCain concluded his statement by noting he has never voted for a Democratic presidential candidate and will not vote for Democratic Presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. He and his wife will instead be writing in another qualified conservative Republican.
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