Sen. Mark Kirk says Republicans presidential nominee Donald Trump should quit the race after Friday’s release of a video in which Trump made extremely lewd comments about women.
“@realDonaldTrump should drop out. @GOP should engage rules for emergency replacement,” Kirk said in a Twitter post Friday evening.
.@realDonaldTrump should drop out. @GOP should engage rules for emergency replacement.
— Mark Kirk (@SenatorKirk) October 8, 2016
Kirk, a moderate Republican, is attempting to hold onto an extremely vulnerable seat in the blue state of Illinois. Kirk initially backed Trump, but withdrew his support in June over Trump’s “racist” behavior and has since actively distanced himself. In response, Trump has ridiculed Kirk and said his reelection difficulties are his own problem.
“I guess there’s a gentleman in Illinois who’s not doing very well,” Trump said during a Thursday town hall event in New Hampshire. “He was actually taking out ads against me. I said, are you sure he’s a Republican? Maybe he’s a Democrat. He’s not doing well, but, hey, that’s his problem. He wasn’t for me and that’s for political reasons.”
Notably, Kirk’s call for Trump to quit isn’t automatically an endorsement of vice presidential nominee Mike Pence. If Trump quits, the Republican National Committee would have the power to choose a replacement candidate, which could be Pence but could also be another 2016 candidate or even a different Republican entirely.
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