Republican Charlie Dent announced Wednesday he is endorsing Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden. The Washington Post writes that the former Pennsylvania Congressman “resigned in frustration from Congress a little more than a year into Trump’s presidency.”
“Dent, who ran the shrinking group of moderate House Republicans called the Tuesday Group, has become an increasingly outspoken Trump critic in his post-Congress life.”
In an op-ed on CNN, Dent wrote:
Donald Trump is not a conservative: He is an illiberal populist and nativist whose chaotic approach and managerial malfeasance have undermined the functioning of government. If you don’t believe me, just ask some of his former appointees like Jim Mattis, Rex Tillerson, Gary Cohn and John Bolton; others no doubt will speak out after this national nightmare has ended. And we have all born witness to his utterly incoherent and ineffective response to the global pandemic, which by almost any metric has significantly lagged behind other developed nations.
Dent also spoke with CNN’s Jake Tapper about his decision. Here’s part of what he said:
“I never in my wildest dreams thought an American, Republican president would be cozying up to somebody like Vladimir Putin and advancing his foreign policy objectives in Europe and the Middle East.
On trade, I’d never thought we’d have a Republican president who’d be throwing around tariffs, taxes on American citizens, and being so opposed to opening up markets for American producers.
Health care, when the president told me I was going to destroy the Republican party, he was the one who really never advanced the real plan to provide health care to Americans. And I think that was a major failing.
So those are three policy areas where there were very significant disagreements. But there are principles that greater than a tax cut or lighter regulatory touch, which I support. There are greater principles involved like the rule of law. We have to defend democratic values. And I say democratic with a small “d.” A free press, an independent judiciary. I mean these are things that are very important. And the president has been trying to undermine those things. And I think that, again, we have to talk about broader principles here rather than just an immediate policy victory.”
