The first of many to come...trying to save their own hides:
A Republican senator up for re-election this year declared in a statement this afternoon that he absolutely cannot bring himself to support Donald Trump as his party’s nominee.
Senator Mark Kirk condemned Trump’s attacks on a Hispanic judge as un-American and said, “While I oppose the Democratic nominee, Donald Trump’s latest statements, in context with past attacks on Hispanics, women and the disabled like me, make it certain that I cannot and will not support support my party’s nominee for President regardless of the political impact on my candidacy or the Republican Party.”
May 6, 2016:
Though he faces a tough re-election race, Sen. Mark Kirk (R-IL) claims to be confident that Donald Trump at the top of the Republican ticket will actually improve his chances of keeping his seat.
"Donald Trump is kind of a riverboat gamble," Kirk told CNN on Friday. "He won the Illinois primary, in this case we have seen the Republican vote up and the Democratic vote down, so it looks like it's a net benefit."
While Kirk has said he would endorse Trump if he becomes the nominee, he maintained that Republican voters in Illinois would be able to distinguish his own platform from the real estate mogul’s.
Kirk is trying to walk a narrow path. He is distancing himself himself from Trump's policies and rhetoric, but also has said he will back Trump if he was the nominee and suggested Trump could even help the Republican Party.
Asked in an interview with CNN last week if he'd support Trump for president, Kirk said: "Certainly, if he's the nominee." Given the opportunity to revise his comments after Trump's win in Indiana, Kirk's campaign declined.Kirk said in that interview that even as he runs against many of Trump's positions, specifically citing an "isolationist" foreign policy debuted last week, he is comfortable sharing a ticket with the mogul.
Senator Lindsey Graham on taking back endorsements of Trump today:
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) is calling on Republicans who have endorsed the party’s presumptive nominee, Donald Trump, to take it all back.
Graham said Trump’s recent racist comments about an Indiana judge with Mexican-American heritage were “the most un-American thing from a politician since Joe McCarthy.”
“If anybody was looking for an off-ramp, this is probably it,” Graham told The New York Times. “There’ll come a time when the love of country will trump hatred of Hillary.”
The senator expanded on this idea Tuesday during an interview with NBC News’ Hallie Jackson.
“There are a lot of people who want to be loyal to the Republican Party, including me,” he said. “But there’ll come a point in time where we’re gonna have to understand that it’s not just about the 2016 race, it’s about the future of the party and I would like to support our nominee. I just can’t.”
“Every person in the Republican Party’s got to make their own decision,” Graham added. “I am going to focus on the House and Senate. I am going to focus on helping my colleagues in the House and Senate ‘cause I can do that enthusiastically.”
Given my military experience, Donald Trump does not have the temperament to command our military or our nuclear arsenal.