Esper ‘definitely not voting for Trump,’ leaves door open for Biden

Former Trump Secretary of Defense Mark Esper said Friday he would not vote for his former boss, but remained open to voting for President Biden.

“I’m not there yet,” Esper said on HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher” when comedian Bill Maher asked him if he would vote for the current president. “I will never vote [former President Trump], but I’m not there yet. ”

President Trump announced in November 2020 that he had fired Esper as Secretary of Defense after Biden was predicted to win the 2020 presidential election. Since then, he has become more critical of his former boss, calling his former boss a “threat to democracy” on the recent three-year anniversary of the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot. called.

“And yes, I think he’s a big believer in democracy, democracy as we know it, our institutions, our political culture, and everything that made America great and defined us as the oldest democracy on earth.” We think it’s a threat to things,” Esper told CNN’s Jim Acosta in January.

“Every time Trump does something crazy, it opens the door a little bit more to vote for Biden,” Esper said on Maher’s show Friday.

“It’s a door that opens slowly,” Maher joked in response to Esper.

Esper previously said he would not vote for Trump this year, saying “we need a new generation of Republican leadership.”

Asked if he would vote for his former boss if he were to run for president again in 2022, Esper said: “No, I’ll explain why later.” “In my opinion, elected leaders need to meet some basic criteria: they need to be able to put the country before themselves, they need to have a degree of integrity and principles. That, you need to be able to reach across the aisle and bring people together and bring the country together. Look, Donald Trump doesn’t meet those criteria for me. ”