Republican Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) on Tuesday dismissed GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump’s readiness to command the U.S. nuclear arsenal in pulling his support for the billionaire businessman.
“It is absolutely essential that we are guided by a commander-in-chief with a responsible and proper temperament, discretion and judgment. Our President must be fit to command the most powerful military the world has ever seen, including an arsenal of thousands of nuclear weapons,” Kirk said in a statement on his campaign website. “After much consideration, I have concluded that Donald Trump has not demonstrated the temperament necessary to assume the greatest office in the world.”
Thus, according to Kirk, “I cannot and will not support my party’s nominee for President regardless of the political impact on my candidacy or the Republican Party.”
Kirk, a former Navy Reserve officer facing a tough re-election battle against Democratic Rep. Tammy Duckworth, reaffirmed his message shortly afterward on Twitter: “Given my military experience, Donald Trump does not have the temperament to command our military or our nuclear arsenal.”
There was no immediate response from Trump’s campaign or the Republican National Committee to Kirk’s statement.
Kirk had indicated his willingness to back a Trump candidacy in March, and until this week had not deviated course, according to news reports. The senator’s reversal comes as much of the Republican Party establishment has – with varying degrees of enthusiasm – rallied around the candidate after he defeated more than a dozen opponents to secure the GOP presidential nomination. Trump proved overwhelmingly popular with the Republican primary electorate, not slowed by his support for banning Muslims from entering the United States, his pledge to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, and his often highly personal attacks on his critics.
However, Trump’s recent rhetoric against a federal judge overseeing the fraud lawsuit against Trump University real estate training program – saying Indiana-born Gonzalo Curiel is a Mexican who thus has a conflict of interest in the case given the candidate’s Mexico wall plan – has been a clear source of dismay for party leaders. House Speaker Paul Ryan on Tuesday described Trump’s comments “as sort of like the textbook definition of a racist comment,” but said he would continue to support him over anticipated Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.
“I have spent my life building bridges and tearing down barriers–not building walls. That’s why I find Donald Trump’s belief that an American-born judge of Mexican descent is incapable of fairly presiding over his case is not only dead wrong, it is un-American,” Kirk said in his statement.
The lawmaker is the first GOP member of the Senate to formally withdraw an endorsement from Trump. Other lawmakers, notably former presidential candidate and vocal Trump critic Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), have withheld their endorsement.
Kirk’s comments came only days after Clinton lambasted Trump as “not someone who should ever have the nuclear codes,” drawing attention to his comments regarding potentially allowing nations such as Japan and South Korea to build their own nuclear arsenals.
