George Pataki says he will not vote for Donald Trump should the billionaire developer win the 2016 Republican presidential nomination — even though he signed a GOP loyalty pledge stating he'll support whoever is chosen.
But, the former New York governor and presidential candidate tells
Newsmax TV, there is no way the billionaire developer, who is the Republican frontrunner by a wide margin, will be the GOP nominee.
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"Let me be very plain, I'm not going to vote for Donald Trump — because he has no chance of being the Republican nominee. He is unfit to be president," Pataki said Friday to J.D. Hayworth on Newsmax Prime.
"He would hurt our party and I would think and hope that virtually every one of my fellow candidates seeking the nomination would be willing to stand up and say 'Our party cannot nominate Donald Trump.'
"To be honest, he's not going to be president. He's not going to be the nominee. He's not going to offer intelligence solutions to the challenges facing this country and let's focus on what those solutions are. We need a comprehensive strategy to defeat radical Islam."
Reminded again by Hayworth that he signed the pledge — as did the other 16 presidential candidates — promising to vote for whomever wins the nomination, Pataki said:
"Yes. I will vote for the Republican nominee, because it's not going to be Donald Trump. Mark my words right now, he will not be the Republican nominee. Period."
In a separate interview on Newsmax's "The Steve Malzberg Show," Pataki spoke about the 14th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, which occurred while he was governor of The Empire State, and how he has relived Sept. 11, 2001 many times over.
"Absolutely. It's just a very sad day for me and I'm sure for thousands and thousands of others," Pataki said.
"There will be, as always the case on Sept. 11, thousands of family members who come back to remember the loved ones they've lost and to help mourn and remember them."
Pataki said he was in Manhattan when the first jet hit the North Tower of the World Trade Center.
"I remember my daughter called me and said 'Dad turn on the TV. A plane hit the towers.' She was kind of rattled and we kept talking," he recalled.
"And then I saw the second plane and I immediately knew we were under a terrorist attack."
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