President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser John Bolton says he won’t be voting for Trump or Joe Biden, USA Today reports.
Bolton told the National Press Club on Tuesday that this election will be the “first time in my adult political career when I won’t be voting for the Republican nominee for president.
"I won't be voting for Joe Biden either,” he added.
Instead, he said he plans on writing in “a Republican conservative yet to be determined."
He said Trump is “not competent to be president.”
"He's not up to the job,” Bolton said of Trump.
According to USA Today, Bolton is optimistic that damage imposed by Trump at home and abroad during his first term could be repaired. But, he noted that he is “really very worried” about what will happen to the country if Trump has a second term.
"And so, from that perspective, Election Day this year is not going to be a happy day for me one way or the other. I'm going to be unhappy with the result," he told the National Press Club.
Bolton’s position on the presidential candidates comes as several GOP members endorsed Biden at the Democratic National Convention. Supporters include former GOP national security adviser Colin Powell, former Ohio Gov. John Kasich, former New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman and former Rep. Susan Molinari of New York.
Bolton said he respects the Republicans who backed Biden calling it an "obviously a sensible strategy.”
And for those supporting Trump, Bolton said he understands because many of them are "not voting for Trump because they favor him, but because they're afraid of what the left-wing of the party would do in a Biden administration, as am I."
Whether Trump wins or not, he said he is focused on the future of the Republican Party. He stressed that the GOP needs to maintain control of the Senate.
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