Former Rep. Chris Shays said Wednesday he started out the 2016 presidential race backing Ohio Gov. John Kasich, but now he is backing Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton because he believes her Republican rival Donald Trump is too dangerous.
"It's not hard to figure out," the Connecticut Republican, who appeared on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" program along with former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, commented. "Donald Trump lost me a long time ago. He does and says everything my mom and dad taught me never to say and do."
Even worse, said Shays, Trump "doesn't understand the basic requirements of being president of the United States and frankly, he's dangerous."
Shays said he came to his decision for many reasons, including the words Trump uses.
"If someone doesn't like him, they're bad," said Shays. "A good governor from New Mexico, [Susana Martinez] said she didn't support him and so she's a bad governor. She's a good governor. So, when a leader criticizes him, what is he going to do?"
However, he asked show co-host Mika Brzezinski to give House Speaker Paul Ryan some more sympathy or empathy when it comes to his support of Trump.
"You have to understand what that person is involved in," said Shays. "He's representing all of the members running around the country. And they're saying to him, if you oppose Donald Trump, I'm going to lose the next election. Don't put me in that position."
Brzezinski said that she can't have sympathy for Ryan or anyone who endorses a candidate like Trump, particularly after his comments on Tuesday calling for Second Amendment supporters to stop Clinton, but Shays pointed out that he has been against Trump for a long time.
Meanwhile, the former representative said he likes Clinton because she'll work with "Republicans and all Americans" and she understands foreign policy, the White House, and Congress.
Granholm commented that Trump's words should not come as a surprise, as he has been "encouraging violence and applauding violence that had been happening. I mean the fact that he's been saying these kind of things all along, shouldn't be surprising us. What happened yesterday just shows he simply has no filter."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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