Congresswoman Martha McSally has told The Range she won’t be endorsing Donald Trump in this year’s presidential race, although she might vote for him.
“I have never endorsed a politician in my life and I’m not going to start now, so you can ask me for the next three and a half months, but it’s not happening,” McSally said on Friday, July 22. “Who we each vote for is our responsibility as a citizen and a voter and, in that role, have a vote just like you have a vote and I personally believe that is between me, God and the ballot box.”
The two Democrats who are competing in the Democratic primary, former state lawmakers Matt Heinz and Victoria Steele, have both worked to link McSally to Trump, as has the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. They’re hoping that Trump will prove so unpopular with voters that he’ll affect down-ticket races.
After Trump clinched the nomination, McSally said via a prepared statement that she would spend time between now and Election Day evaluating Trump’s character to determine if she could support him.
But she told the Range last week that she “utterly disagreed” with Trump’s recent comments in an interview with the New York Times that the United States might not come to the aid of NATO allies if they hadn’t fulfilled their financial obligations to the alliance. Trump’s response to a question about a hypothetical Russian invasion of a Baltic state left many national-security experts unhappy and had political observers noting that Trump appeared to be currying favor with Russian President Vladimir Putin and expressing concern about Trump’s financial ties to Russian oligarchs.
“The NATO alliance is held together (by the concept of) an attack on one is an attack on all,” McSally said. “That’s what makes up the alliance. So we strongly need to adhere to our Article 5 responsibilities.”
Asked if there were specific policy areas where she agreed with Trump, McSally said she hadn’t been paying much attention to his campaign.
“He’s been saying a lot of things,” McSally said. “I don’t sit there and watch evening TV, watching speeches of politicians. I just don’t have the time. I think he is, in general, tapping into a frustration that is across the political spectrum, that they’re feeling like—and this is especially true about the middle class and they can’t figure out what the diagnosis is—but, ‘No matter what we can do, we can’t get ahead.’ And these are complicated issues but there’s a lot of frustration.”
McSally added that she had “voiced several concerns about how (Trump) chooses to speak, the way he’s spoken about veterans and Hispanics and women and others. That’s just not how leaders carry themselves. But I don’t think people should dismiss what he is hearing from people about the level of frustration about lack of opportunity and concerns about safety and security. How you deal with that, what you think the solution is—hopefully we can get to where that’s a battle of ideas of public policy solutions for complex problems as opposed to a WWF tournament.”
This article appears in Jul 21-27, 2016.
The last 24 hours have proven it’s more dangerous to be linked to HRC and the Democratic party. Can’t anybody teach them how to secure their lying, cheating system rigging emails?
After watching the s-shows involving both parties in 2016, I realized the reality is there are no rules – they’re making this stuff up as they go. The predetermined outcomes are not dictated by the party members, party leadership, candidates or the voters, but by those with the wealth and power behind the scenes who are exercising their “free speech” with obscene amounts of money to ensure they continue to increase their wealth and power. Everything else – the debates, the campaigns, the conventions and the vote – are an illusion meant to convince the masses that they are still living in a free country with elected officials representing the will of the people. Nothing could be further from the truth. They say that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results, well, voting in America is a lot like that.
I would ask Rep McSally about the Pacific Trade Deals. In our geographic location it has impact. I would ask Rep McSally what she might with engineering standards and federal oversight on Nat’l Forest land use in the west. Thats is what we need in this next congress. That is what southern AZ needs is someone who knows what when to look for.
If Trump wins the Election Trump will have to assemble a cabinet and relations with the new congress. Trump will have to seek out the smartest most knowledgeable. For Southern Arizona Rep. McSally is in a good position to negotiate for her district.
Question is do you trust her ability to deal in that congress for southern AZ ? I do and feel good to have that voice in congress representing southern Arizona.
These are probably the smartest things McSally has said since she’s been elected, minus the part where she said that she might vote for Chump.
P.S. to Larry McNeil: I’m sure there are plenty of conservative teabaggers that can teach even HRC and other Dems a thing or two about how to secure their “lying, cheating system rigging emails”.
P.P.S. to sgsmith: I could not possibly agree more with your post. It’s as if you’re reading my mind.
Awkward, considering the Koch Brothers, to whom McSally owes so much, are now backing HRC. Expertise in lobbying for the Military Industrial Complex, to whom she also owes a lot? She has that. Does she represent me well? No.
As far as lie cheating what happened to all the primary in 2008. Where the DNC threw out all of the votes in Florida, Michigan, Ohio. Giving out Obama the nomination. Look at the primaries of this election who voted and if they did what did it matter.
Debra Wasserman Schultz
These previous posts now tell me who todays Archie Bunkers are. Is this our system, mad because the Democrats have done a well terrible shit job in managing. Fixed elections hide administrative directions and point fingers. Finger pointing gives bad media a purpose and reason. And media always goes for the buck to slant corony capitalism to if you have a cause media have a support group. All make money for media who’s brand of soap do you use is it green ?
Good for her.
Now if she would tell us how much of her financial support comes from outside our district.
When Hillary shows us the foreign money.
AZDC, stop with the homophobic put downs. It isn’t funny.
What homophobic put-downs?
What ever two consenting adults do in privacy is none of my concern. Because of that, I have no reason to put any of it down.
Two adults, meaning male and/or female, not necessarily homosexuals. I’m not sure what you were thinking with that one Larry.
I think you’re just offended because, politically…you’re a conservative teabagger.
Now that’s funny!