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Tags: adam kinzinger | donald trump | hillary clinton | wont endorse

Rep. Kinzinger Won't Back Trump: 'He Can Tweet All He Wants'

Rep. Kinzinger Won't Back Trump: 'He Can Tweet All He Wants'

Rep. Adam Kinzinger (Photo By Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call via AP Images)

By    |   Wednesday, 03 August 2016 07:09 PM EDT

Rep. Adam Kinzinger said Wednesday that he was not supporting Donald Trump — nor Hillary Clinton — because "I have to do this for my country and for my party."

"Donald Trump is beginning to cross a lot of red lines that are he unforgivable in politics," the three-term Illinois Republican told Wolf Blitzer on CNN. "I'm not going to support Hillary.

"In America, we have the right to skip somebody and write in a vote. That's what it's looking like for me today.

"I don't see how I get to Donald Trump anymore."

Kinzinger, 38, who has widely slammed Trump throughout the campaign, said he attended last month's Republican National Convention in Cleveland "on Monday, hoping that by Thursday, I could at least mildly endorse the Republican front-runner."

He still held off, distanced by Trump's comments on not immediately defending NATO allies that week.

But when the nominee attacked the parents of a Muslim Army captain who died in Iraq in 2004, that was the last straw for the Air Force veteran.

"This unbelievable spat with a family of a fallen soldier, a fallen soldier, who swore to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States," Kinzinger told Blitzer. "He wouldn't even initially say we honor the family for their service.

"He immediately took it as what it was to him: an affront to him."

The congressman declined to say for whom he would vote in November — only that he would focus on down-ballot candidates.

"We don't have to pick among the two of them," he said. "There's a bunch of people on the ballot. There's a write-in option.

"I don't agree with Hillary Clinton on a lot of things, but I don't know what Donald Trump stands for on policy.

"I'm seeing my party being turned upside down," Kinzinger later added. "He's more interested in bringing Bernie Sanders voters than in healing divisions in his own party.

"That's concerning to me for the long term health of the Republican Party.

"No matter what the political cost is to me, I'm an American before Republican. I won't be silent.

"He can tweet all he wants," he said. "I have to do this for my country and my party."

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Rep. Adam Kinzinger said Wednesday that he was not supporting Donald Trump - nor Hillary Clinton - because "I have to do this for my country and for my party."
adam kinzinger, donald trump, hillary clinton, wont endorse
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2016-09-03
Wednesday, 03 August 2016 07:09 PM
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