By Andrew Kaczynski, CNN
One week after calling on Donald Trump to step aside as the Republican nominee, the GOP candidate for U.S. Senate in Colorado now says he will vote for him on Election Day, according to audio obtained by CNN’s KFile.
Darryl Glenn, who is challenging incumbent Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet, issued a statement when news broke of Trump’s lewd comments on a 2005 “Access Hollywood” tape, calling on Trump to voluntarily step aside and saying the GOP nominee was “simply disqualified from being Commander-in-Chief.”
A week later, however, Glenn now says he’ll vote for Trump but still doesn’t endorse him.
In audio obtained by CNN’s KFile from a source who attended the closed-door Colorado Concern forum on Friday, Glenn tells attendees he will be voting for the Republican platform and the GOP nominee.
“So where I’m at right now is that I absolutely will be supporting the Republican platform and voting for Mr. Trump,” Glenn said. “I will not be personally endorsing Mr. Trump and there is a clear distinction. When I personally endorse you that means I know your heart, I know your character and I can personally attest to that and I can not. If that changes we can revisit that, when it comes to evaluating the policies of what we’re going to be able to do with regard to weighing the Republican policy platform versus the Democrats, it is not even a choice. I will be voting for the Republican ticket and Republican candidates.”
Several Republican lawmakers and candidates have distanced themselves from Trump since news broke of the 2005 tape, in which Trump can be heard bragging about doing whatever he wants to a woman because he’s a celebrity, including grabbing their genitals. Trump apologized for those comments in a video statement and at the debate, referring to them as “locker room talk”
Glenn spent the past week backing away from his strongly worded statement calling on Trump to drop out of the race. After initially telling local media through a spokesperson that he would not even vote for Trump, Glenn praised his debate performance and said he was unsure if he’d vote for Trump or not.
At the forum Friday, Glenn said he would not apologize for his strong initial reaction to Trump’s 2005 comments.
“What I want to do is be able to share with everybody the reality of where we’re at in this election cycle,” Glenn said. “I mean this is either the best or worst reality TV show ever. And, my background, I grew up in a broken home. Domestic violence is real. When a man puts his hand on a women, that has a tremendous impact on my life. And when the story first came out and I heard that, I had a reaction as a father, as a Christian and I was very concerned, deeply moved by that. The initial reaction was real, that’s how I felt. I’m not going to apologize for that.”
Glenn added that he found Trump’s apology at the debate to be sincere, and that his faith teaches him to never close the door on anybody.
“That’s when I said, well I don’t know him as an individual so I will extend an opportunity to talk to him and that opportunity is still there,” he said. “What Republicans must understand — especially here in Colorado — is it’s fine to sit here and talk to Republicans, but you also must understand, that when I’m out there as the head of my party in the state, when I’m talking to Democrats and un-affiliates, the first question out of their mouth is to justify the comments for my candidate. And I can not do that without not having a relationship with that individual.”
A spokesperson for Glenn’s campaign declined to comment for this story.
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