Jim Webb Won’t Vote For Hillary Clinton, But Would Consider Trump
Former U.S. Senator Jim Webb revealed to the Morning Joe crew on MSNBC that he won’t vote for Hillary Clinton, but he is “not sure yet” about supporting GOP front-runner Donald Trump.
Webb was one of Hillary Clinton’s rivals for the Democrat presidential nomination before he dropped out on October 20, shortly after the Democrat debate in Las Vegas, because he was getting minimal traction in the polls. He later considered and then abandoned the idea of a third-party run for president.
Webb, 70, is a highly decorated Marine combat veteran who was Secretary of the Navy under President Ronald Reagan and who was a strong opponent of the Iraq War. A Republican from 1984 to 2006, Webb served one term in the U.S. Senate from Virginia as a Democrat after narrowly defeating incumbent Republican George Allen in November 2006. Allen declined to request a recount, although he had the legal basis for doing so.
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When Morning Joe panelist Willie Geist asked Webb about who he is supporting for president, the ex-Senator confirmed that he definitely won’t cast a ballot for Hillary Clinton, but didn’t rule out voting for Donald Trump.
“This is nothing personal about Hillary Clinton, but I think the reason that Donald Trump is getting so much support right now is not because of racists, you know, et cetera, et cetera, it’s because people are seeing him, a certain group of people are seeing him, as the only one who has the courage to step forward and say we’ve got to clean out the stables of the American governmental system right now. We’ve got to make it work. And if you’re voting for Donald Trump you may get something very good or very bad. If you’re voting for Hillary Clinton, you’re going to be getting the same thing. Do you want the same thing? You know, six percent of the people in the country maybe want the same thing.”
.@JimWebbUSA: No, I would not vote for @HillaryClinton… 'I'm not sure yet' on @realDonaldTrump https://t.co/VF2TSv2H3f
— Morning Joe (@Morning_Joe) March 4, 2016
Jim Webb has argued that Hillary Clinton has a very poor foreign policy record, and in a December 2015 Facebook post, he strongly criticized Clinton for the Libya intervention that resulted in the country becoming a terrorist enclave during her tenure as U.S. Secretary of State.
In November, Webb chided Clinton for her unsubstantiated claim that she tried to join the Marines but was discouraged by a recruiter. “Mrs. Clinton disparaged integrity of [the U.S. Marine Corps] claiming wrongly turned away from serving. Tell us when, where & w/whom,” Webb demanded on Twitter at the time.
Since leaving office, Jim Webb has stepped up his criticism that the Democrats have moved too far to the left. As a U.S. Senator, however, Webb voted for the Obama agenda nearly 90 percent of the time including for the stimulus bill, Obamacare, and other liberal/progressive initiatives.
On Christmas Eve 2015, Webb slammed Obama on Facebook for comments the president made on NPR about blue-collar workers that “show how out of touch this administration and the Democratic Party have become with working men and women.”
Jim Webb won't vote for Hillary Clinton, says Donald Trump is an option https://t.co/PmDuJvclFo pic.twitter.com/8gYjne0Zc6
— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) March 4, 2016
“It’s not surprising that Webb would mull crossing over from the party he would have represented in the White House to pull the lever for Trump, who’s taken the GOP by storm – against the will of party elites – this election cycle,” U.S. News explained.
“There is some early speculative talk that Webb might be a possible candidate to be Trump’s running mate, or that he could play some role in Trump’s cabinet, the Washington Examiner claimed.
In the MSNBC interview, Webb also provided Trump with a recommendation moving forward.
“If there were one piece of advice that I would give Donald Trump, if I knew Donald Trump, it would be, you know, instead of just doing these debates, find one of these issues and make a major policy speech so people can see how you’re going to communicate if you’re president.”
Jim Webb also disagreed with Donald Trump’s vow made last night during the GOP debate that the military would follow his orders in the context of terrorist interrogations no matter what.
“There’s a thing called the law, you know, and if you are receiving an illegal order, you do not obey. And you have the moral authority not to obey.”
[Photo by Erik Kabik Photography/MediaPunch/IPX]
