Former Republican Sen. Larry Pressler formally endorsed presumptive Democratic nominee for president Hillary Clinton in her bid for the presidency Monday.
But Pressler, who endorsed Obama twice, is about as much a representative of the GOP as Barney Frank.
The former Republican senator to South Dakota during the ’90s stated that he “can’t believe I’m endorsing Hillary Clinton, but I am.” Later, Pressler asserted, “If someone had told me 10 years ago I would do this, I wouldn’t have believed them.” Pressler, who served three consecutive terms before losing to a Democrat in 1997, also served on President George W. Bush’s election steering committee during both presidential bids.
Pressler, a Mormon Sunday school teacher, said the worst thing for Republicans to do is sit by and do nothing while Trump gets elected. “Mormons are very nervous of Trump,” he said.
The former senator referenced the 1838 decision by Missouri Gov. Lilburn Boggs to kill all of the Mormons that resided in the state. “Mormons are the only religious group besides the Jews who have been ordered by the government to be extinguished, killed,” Pressler added.
Pressler shunned the Mormon Republican nominee Mitt Romney in 2008 and 2012.
The fact is that Larry Pressler has little, if any, remaining Republican clout. The district that he ran for in 2014 is largely centrist, and the moderate lost to a Democrat in 1997. In a world where tea party favorite Paul Ryan was dubbed a RINO for not supporting certain bills, Pressler is hardly the measure for good conservatives.
The PAC “Republicans for Hillary” attempted to gain credibility by publishing this endorsement of the former Republican. For former Sen. Larry Pressler, endorsing a major Democratic candidate is nothing new.
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