The Republican National Committee began losing staff as Donald Trump's grip closed on the party's presidential nomination, with many departing workers seeing him as a "deal breaker."
Including deputy press secretary James Hewitt, director of Hispanic media Ruth Guerra, spokesman Fred Brown and research analysts Colin Spence and Lars Trautman, 11 staffers have quit the committee since March, though not all because of Trump, Politico reports, citing "multiple sources."
"I didn't want to be associated with the Trump campaign," said one former staffer. "I don't agree with what he has to say . . . He's not a person I feel comfortable working for. It's just that simple."
Spence, who left in June after a year with the committee cited a "variety of factors," including that he wasn't "overjoyed with how the primary season went."
"Personally I wasn't comfortable working to elect him," Spence said about the party nominee.
Sean Spicer, the RNC's communications director and chief strategist, downplayed the departures, saying only a "handful of people" have left out of hundreds on the payroll.
"What you're telling me is very possible," he said when Politico asked about the departed staff, but "in a couple of those cases I know that they were getting significantly more money and they couldn't be matched."
The GOP's Florida communications director Wadi Gaitan recently left his job with the Republican Party in favor of working for the conservative LIBRE initiative.
"I'm thankful for my almost two years with the Florida GOP, however, moving on gives me a great, new opportunity to continue promoting free-market solutions while avoiding efforts that support Donald Trump," Gaitan told BuzzFeed in a statement. Gaitan, who is of Honduran descent, couldn't accept Trump's divisive rhetoric.
Politico reported a spreading dismay particularly among younger staffers over the Trump campaign.
"It sucks to wake up every morning and go into the office and do things to help Donald Trump become president. They don't like that. It's bad for morale," an unnamed GOP consultant told Politico.
"All these senior people went on board and saluted and said ‘I'm with you Donald Trump.' It's been the most shocking thing of this cycle for me, even more shocking than the fact that he won."
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