1 week ago

Asa Hutchinson, Fierce Never Trumper In The GOP Primary, Won’t Be Voting For Biden

Asa Hutchinson, the former governor of Arkansas and one of Donald Trump’s sharpest critics on the GOP presidential debate stage, said he won’t be voting for President Joe Biden in November.

And while the likely rematch of the 2020 election has left many voters unenthusiastic about the prospect of either winning, Hutchinson said he thought American democracy would survive either way.

“I’m not going to vote for Biden,” Hutchinson told HuffPost Wednesday as he was leaving the U.S. Capitol after a visit, reiterating a stance first disclosed in March.

Hutchinson, along with former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, was one of former President Donald Trump’s most vocal critics during the GOP presidential primary season. Early on, Hutchinson, a former federal prosecutor, said Trump should drop out because of the array of federal and state charges against him.

Other prominent Republicans have recently said they won’t vote for Trump but also won’t vote for Biden, who will be the only other major party nominee on the ballot.

Former House Speaker Paul Ryan said Tuesday that he wouldn’t be voting for Trump but would instead write in his pick, which he said he also did in 2020.

Christie, also a former federal prosecutor, said he, too, would not vote for Trump but also could not bring himself to vote for Biden, describing him as “past the sell-by date.”

Christie said, “If the American people are stupid enough to nominate these two guys, doesn’t mean I have to be stupid, too.”

Not every anti-Trump Republican has picked that route, though. Former Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan said Monday he would vote for Biden instead of “a criminal defendant without a moral compass.”

While critics of the no-Trump-no-Biden school say the narrow margins in swing states and the potential consequences of a second Trump win make that approach untenable, Hutchinson disagreed.

“I see one candidate that’s very dangerous, Donald Trump, for America. I see Joe Biden as reflecting bad policies in America. Our democracy is resilient enough to survive either, but it might challenge it,” he said.

“People are all struggling. Some will vote for a third party. Some Republican friends will write-in candidates. Others say we’re going to do the team thing, and we need to support Donald Trump. I’ve indicated I’m not going to do that.”

Trump, for his part, has appeared to give no credit for what his critics decide to do once they’ve said they’re not voting for him. In a post on his social media site Thursday, Trump railed against Ryan, saying he should be fired from his position as a board member of FOX Corporation, the parent company of FOX News.

Trump posted, “Ryan is a loser, always has been, and always will be. He was the WEAKEST & MOST INCOMPETENT Speaker of the House in its History.”