Retired Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., said Thursday that the 2016 election is a choice between the “lesser of two evils,” and said he hasn’t decided yet whether Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton is the lesser evil.
“Well, I’m proud of the process, certainly not a big Trump supporter,” the former senator said when asked on MSNBC Thursday if he is proud of the GOP and its presumed nominee Donald Trump. “It’s going to be the choice of lesser of two evils for me unless there’s a third party candidate that jumps in there.”
According to Coburn, there is still a possibility of a third party candidate running to challenge Trump.
“It says a whole lot of about our country when this what we get to choose from,” he said, before explaining why the choices this election cycle are poor. Coburn listed a failed political process, “no trust in the status quo,” and a lack of leadership in both parties.
Coburn, whose name was floated as an independent challenger to Trump, also said he decided against running to finish his cancer treatments and to spend more time with his wife.
He was then asked if he thinks Trump can “change” and eventually win over his support.
“You know, I think everybody can change. The question is, does he have the self-discipline and some control over his ego to be able to say ‘I’m wrong’ every now and then? And I haven’t seen that. But that’s not a whole lot different than a whole lot of Washington either,” Coburn said. “And both parties, by the way.”
“So do I have aspirations that he could maybe do that? Sure,” Coburn added. “If you continue to alienate groups of people and stand behind it and not be conciliatory at all and saying, ‘you know, I was really too emotional, I said something I shouldn’t have said, it’s not really accurate. I apologize for that.’ I’ve never heard him say anything like that.”
