House Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Jason Chaffetz explained on Thursday why he voted for Donald Trump but will not endorse the Republican nominee.
“I think they’re different. I think the endorsement is far different than who you actually vote for,” Chaffetz told CNN host Wolf Blitzer. “It’s the one vote I actually do for myself. I don’t represent anybody else.”
In early October, the Utah congressman rescinded his support for Trump following the release of a 2005 “Access Hollywood” video that captured the billionaire businessman talking lewdly about a woman.
Chaffetz said he struggled in his decision to vote for Trump, but said that put “in the context of either Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump, it’s Donald Trump.”
“I’m not going to endorse Donald Trump. I’m not going to do that. I can’t defend the comments that he made,” Chaffetz added. “I think Hillary Clinton is that bad, she is so bad and so wrong for the United States of America. I think her ability to just look in the camera and lie, lie, lie, scares me more than anything.”
Chaffetz and his wife voted last week. Trump has more than a 10-point lead over Clinton in Chaffetz’s home state, but independent candidate Evan McMullin has recently crept up to 25 percent in polls, threatening a Trump win on Nov. 8.
