Gary Herbert, Jason Chaffetz, Jon Huntsman, and Mike Crapo unendorse Donald Trump over lewd comments made a decade ago, giving Democrats fresh hope that that paragon of moral virtue, Hillary Clinton (who remains joined at the hip politically with her sexual predator husband), will steal the Mormon vote from the GOP and turn Utah blue in 2016.
Reports Talking Points Memo (see also related Washington Examiner, Slate, and New York Times stories):
Three weeks after announcing its “Mormons For Hillary” group, the Clinton campaign released a new web video Tuesday targeting Mormon voters as Mormon Republicans disaffected with their party’s nominee publicly renounced Donald Trump.“We are Mormons for Hillary” shows various members of the LDS Church reading a passage from Clinton’s “It Takes A Village,” which focused on the familial and societal structures that affect child development, before an appeal to vote early.
Donald Trump’s problems in Utah have only been exacerbated by a video published Friday that showed the Republican nominee bragging about being able to kiss and grope women without their consent due to his celebrity status.
On Friday, Utah’s Gov. Gary Herbert (R) and Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT), the House Oversight Committee chair, renounced their support of Trump. So did Utah’s rising Republican political star, Rep. Mia Love (R-UT). Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), who has spoken out loudly against Trump for months, released a video Friday pressuring him to drop out of the presidential race. Former Utah Gov. John Huntsman also called on Trump to quit.
Idaho Sen. Mike Crapo, who, like everyone mentioned thus far, is Mormon, also unendorsed Trump, on Saturday.
Meanwhile, two third-party candidates, independent Evan McMullin, a Mormon former CIA agent, and Gary Johnson, the Libertarian former governor of nearby New Mexico, are campaigning heavily in the state. TPM’s Polltracker Average for the state shows Trump leading Clinton 35.7 percent to 24.7 percent.
