The tide is turning.
Appalled by Donald Trump’s outlandish comments, Meg Whitman, the CEO of Hewlett Packard Enterprise and a prominent Republican fundraiser, is breaking ranks with her political party to support Hillary Clinton this November.
Whitman told the New York Times today (Aug. 2) that while she still considers herself a Republican, she will vote for Clinton and persuade her Republican friends to back the Democratic presidential nominee. According to an aide, Whitman intends to donate an amount in the “mid-six figures” to Clinton and her affiliated super PACs to stop Trump, whom she refers to as a “dishonest demagogue.”
Whitman told the Times that Clinton rang her up about a month ago, and though she did not agree then to support her, she came on board after Clinton chose Virginia senator Tim Kaine as her running mate.
“I don’t agree with her on very many issues,” Whitman told the paper, “but she would be a much better president than Donald Trump.”
As more Republicans back away from Trump, few have stopped short of publicly throwing their support behind Clinton. But that’s now starting to change. Just yesterday, US congressman Richard Hanna of New York became the first federal Republican lawmaker to publicly endorse Clinton. Like Whitman, he said he doesn’t agree with Clinton on many issues, but will ultimately vote for her. “I will be hopeful and resolute in my belief that being a good American who loves his country is far more important than parties or winning and losing,” Hanna wrote in an op-ed published on Syracuse.com.