Jon Huntsman calls on Trump to drop out of the race

By MADELINE CONWAY
10/07/16 08:58 PM EDT

Jon Huntsman, the former governor of Utah who had endorsed Donald Trump for president, is calling on the Republican nominee to drop out of the race and leave his running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, to take his place at the top of the ticket.

“In a campaign cycle that has been nothing but a race to the bottom — at such a critical moment for our nation — and with so many who have tried to be respectful of a record primary vote, the time has come for Governor Pence to lead the ticket,” Huntsman told The Salt Lake Tribune.


Huntsman, a Republican who ran for president in 2012, called on Trump to bow out of the race in the wake of revelations that he had made a series of aggressive sexual comments about women, bragging about groping them, in a private conversation in 2005.

The Washington Post published video and audio from that conversation, between Trump and NBC’s Billy Bush, on Friday, prompting a flurry of condemnation from other Republicans, including Reince Priebus, the chairman of the Republican National Committee. Democrats have been quick to jump on the comments to further their argument that Trump is sexist.

If anywhere, Huntsman’s rebuke of Trump would be most likely to resonate in his home state of Utah, which is reliably Republican but has a large Mormon population with whom Trump’s rhetoric about women is not likely to sit well.

Another prominent Republican with roots in Utah, Mitt Romney, has refused to endorse Trump and also offered sharp criticism of the nominee’s leaked comments. Evan McMullin, a conservative who is running a long-shot independent bid for president, was born in the state.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2016/1...#ixzz4MSx6HpYH