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WILKES-BARRE — Attorney Bob Davison has been a Republican his entire life, having worked in the Reagan Administration in the 1980s. He has voted for the Republican nominee for president every cycle since 1976.
Not this year.
Like many other Republicans, Davison said he cannot vote for the 2016 Republican presidential nominee, Donald Trump.
“Well, folks, I am done with Trump,” Davison wrote in an email to his friends. “I know enough to stay away from psychopaths — my grandfather told me that long ago.”
Davison, of Dallas Township, also said he can’t vote for Hillary Clinton, the Democratic nominee for president, or anyone else running for the nation’s highest office. He will vote for Pat Toomey to retain his U.S. Senate seat.
“And that’s about it for me in Pennsylvania,” Davison wrote. “I will also be supporting the purging of the state GOP leadership who let this pandemic spread unchecked.”
Davison said someone suggested to him several months ago that Trump’s goal was to guarantee Clinton’s election, but he scoffed at what he felt was “a crazy suggestion.” He said Trump’s recent actions and words now seem to substantiate that “way out” notion.
“How else can his conduct be seen?” Davison asked. “Why else would he be saying and doing what he is saying and doing? He is politically bipolar.”
Davison said he almost fell to the floor when he watched Trump on TV at a Daytona Beach, Florida, news conference say that his campaign “is doing really well” and “it’s never been so united.” Davison couldn’t believe the remarks.
“It is a sad day,” Davison wrote. “All we Republicans had to do this year to regain the White House was to nominate someone who wasn’t overtly mentally disturbed. Hillary would have done the rest.”
Davison hopes Trump goes away after November to allow the GOP to “re-constitute” the Republican Party next year “without the coo-coos.” He feels Trump has no chance of defeating Clinton.
“With some 25 to 30 percent of the Republican faithful not voting for him — maybe more now — Hillary’s landslide victory is gonna be ‘yuge.’ A Fox News poll has Hillary with a 10 point lead,” he said.
GOP leaders stand by their man
Ron Ferrance, the new chairman of the Luzerne County Republican Party, said voters overwhelmingly selected Trump to be their candidate. In Luzerne County, Ferrance noted Trump received 77 percent of the Republican votes cast in the April Primary.
“My job to support him and to support the Republican Party,” Ferrance said. “I’m happy to do what I can to help him get elected.”
Ferrance said many people — especially staunch Republicans — aren’t used to Trump and the way he speaks.
“He is not politically correct,” Ferrance said. “He doesn’t have a filter. He is not a traditional politician.”
Instead, Ferrance said, Trump always speaks what’s on his mind.
“Does everyone like what he says all the time — no,” Ferrance said. “But he is the candidate who has the vision for the country to fix it.”
Add to that, Ferrance said, is the way things are reported in the media, which he said has sometimes been unfair to Trump.
“With Trump, you always know what is on his mind,” he said. “I respect him for that.”
Ferrance meets with Republican voters all the time and said most are staunch in their support of Trump.
“The trust factor is definitely in the forefront,” Ferrance said. “People just don’t trust (Clinton). If she is elected, the same failed policies will continue.”
U.S. Rep. Lou Barletta, R-Hazleton, one of the first members of Congress to endorse Trump, remains supportive of the GOP candidate.
“We cannot let Hillary Clinton become president of the United States,” Barletta said. “She lied to the American people about her server that contained top-secret information and put our national security at risk. Allowing her to make the Supreme Court picks would affect our country for 60 years and should not be allowed. I urge all my Republican colleagues to support Trump because not doing so helps Clinton.”
Barletta, who has always been a strong supporter of military veterans, addressed the back-and-forth between Trump and parents of Army Capt. Humayun S.M. Khan, a Muslim American war hero whose parents spoke at the Democratic National Convention in opposition to Trump.
“Captain Khan is a hero for sacrificing his life defending our country,” Barletta said. “As a father of four, I cannot imagine the heartbreak felt by his parents. Captain Khan was killed defending the United States in a war that was begun by radical Islamic terrorists (al Qaeda) — a war that continues to this day, now through terrorist attacks perpetrated by and on behalf of ISIS.”
Barletta said the entire Middle East is in turmoil today and he blames Clinton and her “failed term as Secretary of State” as part of the reason.
“Just recently, it became public that the Obama Administration authorized a secret $400 million ransom payment to Iran,” Barletta said. “A Hillary Clinton administration would double-down on these failed foreign policies that threaten our national security and American lives. It’s time we elect a president who will stand up for our military and lead us in the fight against ISIS.”
Many Republicans not supporting Trump
The Associated Press reported Republican U.S. Rep. Charlie Dent, of Allentown, said he won’t vote for Trump or Clinton. The AP story said Dent told MSNBC Tuesday that is concerned by what he said were Trump’s many “incendiary comments.”
He said he’s also bothered by “a lack of policy specifics” from the Republican presidential candidate, adding, “I’m not for Hillary Clinton in any circumstances.”
The six-term congressman backed Ohio Gov. John Kasich in the primary.
Illinois Congressman Adam Kinzinger said earlier this week he cannot support Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.
During an appearance Wednesday on CNN, Kinzinger said he is unlikely to vote for Trump because the nominee was “beginning to cross a lot of red lines of the unforgivable in politics.”