Republican elector explains why he won't vote for Trump

Republican presidential elector Christopher Suprun says he doesn't think a president-elect should be disqualified over policy disagreements or because he lost the popular vote — to him, the deal-breaker is showing the country daily that you're not qualified for the office.

In a New York Times op-ed published Monday, Suprun, a paramedic from Texas, said he was part of the response to the Sept. 11 attacks, a period he calls the last time the country was united. With his unfettered tweeting, Donald Trump is doing what he can to "drive a wedge between us," Suprun said, and he "does not encourage civil discourse, but chooses to stoke fear and create outrage." Suprun also took issue with Trump's business dealings and the fact that he surrounds himself with advisers like former Breitbart News head Steve Bannon, and said Trump lacks the foreign policy experience and demeanor to be president. This is troubling, but since the vote hasn't taken place yet, "electors of conscience can still do the right thing for the good of the country."

The role of the Electoral College is to "determine if candidates are qualified, not engaged in demagogy, and independent from foreign influence," he said. Trump has shown over and over he doesn't meet these standards, Suprun continued, and "given his own public statements, it isn't clear how the Electoral College can ignore these issues, and so it should reject him." He said he'd like to see his fellow electors rally around an "honorable" Republican candidate, like Ohio Gov. John Kasich, adding that while he has worked hard in the past to elect Republicans, he "owes no debt to a party. I owe a debt to my children to leave them a nation they can trust." Suprun ended his op-ed on a sober note. "Fifteen years ago, I swore an oath to defend my country and Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic," he said. "On Dec. 19, I will do it again." Read the entire op-ed at The New York Times.

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