Former United States president George W Bush, a Republican, seems to be reluctant to endorse his party’s presidential candidate, Donald Trump, for the presidential election in November.
According to Reuters, the 43rd president does not plan to make an endorsement or voice how he or his wife Laura will vote in the presidential election, a spokesman said on Saturday.
Bush will not join his former vice president Dick Cheney, who said last week that he would vote for Democrat Kamala Harris over Republican Trump, crossing party lines.
“He retired from presidential politics many years ago,” said the spokesman, who did not wish to be named.
Cheney, 83, who served as vice president under Bush, 78, from 2001 to 2009, said on Friday that “in our nation’s 248-year history, there has never been an individual who is a greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump.”
Cheney’s daughter, leading Trump critic and former Republican congresswoman Liz Cheney, has also called on fellow conservatives to vote for Harris in November, The Independent reported.
“Dick Cheney will be voting for Kamala Harris,” the former vice president’s daughter said on Friday at the Texas Tribune Festival. “If you think about the moment we’re in, and you think about how serious this moment is, my dad believes — and he said publicly — there has never been an individual in our country who is as grave a threat to our democracy as Donald Trump is.”
Following Cheney and his daughter’s endorsements, Harris said that the father-daughter duo was “courageous” for putting country ahead of political party.
Additionally, Mike Pence, who served as Trump’s vice president for four years, has said he will not endorse his former boss but has not backed Harris.
Harris, 59, and running mate Tim Walz, 60, have courted Republicans who refuse to vote for Trump, with Harris saying in a CNN interview that she would consider appointing a Republican to her cabinet.
After Trump won the presidential election against Hillary Clinton in 2016, Bush attended his inauguration but reportedly called his speech “some weird s***.”
However, a spokesperson at the time said that Bush and his wife did not vote for either Trump or Clinton. He also declined to endorse Joe Biden or Trump in 2020.
The Harris campaign noted in a press release on Sunday the amount of support from Republicans the vice president has received.
With the presidential elections nearly two months away, the Harris campaign reports strong support from other 230 alumni of Bush, John McCain, and Mitt Romney.
Despite her efforts to attract swing state voters, a recent New York Times/Siena College poll suggests that Harris may face un uphill battle.
The poll indicates that Trump leads Harris 48% to 47%, with voters perceiving the Republican candidate as closer to the center compared to the vice president, who is seen as too liberal or progressive, according to the poll.
Harris and Trump are set to spar in their highly-anticipated first debate which will be hosted by ABC in Pittsburgh on Tuesday night.
