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Eye On Boise

Labrador says he’s ready to ‘support’ but not ‘endorse’ Trump; calls him ‘childish’

Idaho 1st District Congressman Raul Labrador was quizzed about presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump by Wolf Blitzer on CNN on Friday afternoon, and Labrador said he’s in the camp of those who will “support” but not “endorse” Trump at this point. He also derided Trump for being “pretty immature” during the campaign thus far, and said Trump needs to “learn how to campaign a little bit better.”

“I think Donald Trump has earned my support – I’m going to vote for him because he’s a much better option than Hillary Clinton,” Labrador told CNN. “However, so far he has not earned my endorsement, and he has not earned my active participation in his campaign. He might not want it, and that’s OK. But I think he needs to come out and he needs to talk to a few of us in Washington, D.C., he needs to understand that 60 percent of the people in the party did vote against him. That doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t vote for him. And I don’t understand all these people that are out there on the never-Trump bandwagon. I think he did earn the support of the Republican Party by winning the nomination.”

“But I think he needs to grow up a little bit,” Labrador said. “Some of the comments that he makes are pretty immature. And I think he needs to learn how to bring these people together. His job is to bring the Republican Party together, and sometimes that’s hard after a very difficult fight. But I think that’s his responsibility, to come out and work with us.”

Asked if he thought having Trump at the top of the ticket would hurt Republicans like him, Labrador said, “I don’t. I think it will be bringing some new people to the party.” He added, “I also think he needs to learn how to campaign a little bit better. … He’s talking about putting America first, he’s talking about making America great. And those are great slogans, great things to talk about. Now, let’s figure out how he can do that without just attacking people and having childish tweets and childish statements about people out there.” You can watch the full video here.



Betsy Z. Russell
Betsy Z. Russell joined The Spokesman-Review in 1991. She currently is a reporter in the Boise Bureau covering Idaho state government and politics, and other news from Idaho's state capital.

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