Former Republican U.S. Representative and 2020 GOP presidential candidate Joe Walsh (R-IL) commended former Georgia Lt. Governor Geoff Duncan, a lifelong Republican, for having the courage to announce that he’s not voting for former President Donald Trump this election year and is instead endorsing — and will vote for — President Joe Biden.
In an op-ed essay published in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution this week, Duncan described Biden as a “decent person I disagree with on policy,” contrasting Biden with with Trump, who he characterized as “a criminal defendant without a moral compass.”
Today, another big name Republican announced that he is not voting for Trump, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee.
Former Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-WI) announced that — like other top Republicans including Trump’s former Vice President Mike Pence and former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie — he won’t vote for Trump because he’s unfit for the job. Unlike Duncan, Ryan did not announce an endorsement of Biden. Instead, he says he’s going to write someone in on the ballot.
Former House Speaker Paul Ryan on why he will not vote for Donald Trump in November:
“Character is too important to me, and it’s a job that requires the kind of character that he just doesn’t have.”pic.twitter.com/a6DATPvFPq
— Republican Voters Against Trump (@AccountableGOP) May 8, 2024
Walsh responded to Ryan’s announcement: “I’m sorry, but here we go again. Like Christie, Pence, Barr & so many others, Paul Ryan says he won’t vote for Trump bcuz Trump is unfit, but he won’t for the only guy on the ballot who can beat Trump. This isn’t courage. This is political expediency. Don’t applaud this.” (Despite what Walsh writes, Trump’s former Attorney General Bill Barr has said that despite thinking Trump “unfit,” he will vote for the Republican ticket.)
[Note: Ryan was the vice presidential nominee in the 2012 election with U.S. Senator Mitt Romney (R-UT) — they lost to then-incumbent President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden.]
Conservative political pundit Sarah Longwell agrees with Walsh: “I appreciate every Republican who refuses to endorse Trump. I really do. But saying you’re going to write someone in is such a cop out. If Trump is dangerous and unfit for the job then you vote for the only person who can keep him out of the White House.”