Virginia Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin on Wednesday mentioned he would help Donald Trump if the previous president is the get together’s 2024 presidential nominee. He stopped wanting endorsing Trump within the GOP main, the place Trump leads the field by greater than 45 factors.
“Listen, he and I’ve completely different kinds, however his insurance policies have been efficient they usually labored,” Youngkin mentioned on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”
A rising Republican star from a purple state, Youngkin reportedly thought of getting into the 2024 presidential race himself. He finally determined in opposition to it.
Now, as Trump racks up endorsements from Republican senators and governors, Youngkin stays hesitant to embrace his get together’s divisive chief. Trump endorsed Youngkin’s profitable run for governor in 2021.
Youngkin downplayed considerations that Trump would search “retribution” if he have been handed a second time period, suggesting historical past and custom would insulate American democracy.
“We did not have kings, we did not have dictators, and God bless George Washington for recognizing that and stepping down after two phrases and establishing the position of the presidency,” Youngkin mentioned. “This is what America was constructed on, and that is what I feel America will do going ahead.”
Appearing alongside Youngkin, Ken Langone, the billionaire Home Depot co-founder, didn’t share the governor’s optimism.
“I fear if Trump wins that it will be 4 years of getting even, and that is scary, as a result of we have severe points developing that have to be addressed,” Langone informed the “Squawk Box” hosts.
Langone has endorsed former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley for the GOP nomination. But he isn’t the one one sounding alarms about Trump, whose marketing campaign rhetoric vilifying his perceived enemies has more and more been criticized as authoritarian.
The former president and present Republican main front-runner in latest weeks has vowed to be his supporters’ “retribution” and to be a dictator on “Day 1” if reelected.
Asked to answer Langone’s criticisms, Youngkin as a substitute praised Trump for his political outcomes.
“I feel what we noticed throughout President Trump’s time period was that he actually ruled in a means that delivered good coverage outcomes,” Youngkin mentioned. “There was an ideal economic system, we had a safe border, we understood what projecting power all over the world meant. That’s the way in which he ruled earlier than.”
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