John McCain Withdraws Endorsement As Donald Trump Emerges From Trump Tower To Raise Fist
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Donald Trump emerged from Trump Tower for the first time since dropping last night’s video, addressing his lewd 2005 remarks about women caught on a hot-mic tape and released by The Washington Post yesterday afternoon.
The man who promised he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and not lose any support, media camped outside the building Saturday afternoon, raised his fist into the air, then waved, as supporters holding vigil on the sidewalk began to shout “USA!” and “Donald Trump!” As the scene was unfolding, TV news outlets received a statement from yet another Republican bigwig withdrawing his endorsement of the GOP presidential candidate. This time, it was Arizona Sen. John McCain, the GOP’s 2008 presidential hopeful, who Trump famously described as a war hero because he got captured during the Vietnam War, while expressing his preference “for people who did not get captured.”
“In addition to my well-known differences with Donald Trump on public policy issues, I have raised questions about his character after his comments on Prisoners of War, the Khan Gold Star family, Judge Curiel and earlier inappropriate comments about women,” McCain said of his decision to pull his endorsement of his party’s candidate.
“Just this week, he made outrageous statements about the innocent men in the Central Park Five case,” McCain continued.
“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. He alone bears the burden of his conduct and alone should suffer the consequences.”
“I have wanted to support the candidate our party nominated. He was not my choice, but as a past nominee, I thought it 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.
“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.”
Commenting on Trump’s fist-raising gesture, former presidential advisor to Richard Nixon (as well as Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton) David Gergen marveled of Trump, “In his head, he thinks he can turn around” calling it very similar to “Nixon at the end, as things were closing in on him.”
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