Adam Kinzinger: Donald Trump suffers second high-profile Republican defection in two days

Congressman Adam Kinzinger said he cannot support Mr Trump AP
 Donald Trump suffered another blow to his chances of uniting Republicans behind him, after a Congressman and military veteran said he was unable to support the tycoon’s bid for the presidency.

Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger, who served in Iraq, said he would not support Hillary Clinton or tell voters how they should vote. But he said he could not support a nominee who “throws all these Republican principles on their head”.
“I’m an American before I’m a Republican,” Mr Kinzinger told CNN. “I won’t be silent. He can tweet all he wants. I have to do this for my country and for my party.

Coming up at the top of the hour on @CNN - I'll join @wolfblitzer in the @CNNSitRoom to talk about #POTUS, #Iran, and more. Tune in, folks!

— Adam Kinzinger (@RepKinzinger) August 3, 2016

Mr Kinzinger, who was elected to Congress in 2010, has openly hesitated to embrace Mr Trump as his party’s standard-bearer. He said he went to the convention in Cleveland hoping to “at least mildly endorse" the Republican front-runner.
But in the aftermath of Mr Trump’s comments about Russian President Vladimir Putin and the parents of slain Muslim American soldier Humayun Khan, the third-term Illinois congressman said that he did not “see how I get there anymore”.

This is a modal window.

This video is either unavailable or not supported in this browser

Error Code: MEDIA_ERR_SRC_NOT_SUPPORTED

Usborne on Republican split

“I’m a Republican because I believe that Republicanism is the best way to defend the United States of America,” Mr Kinzinger said on Wednesday evening.
The congressman also said the possibility that Mr Trump could be a drag on races further down the ticket was a factor and that he wanted to focus on defending the Republican majority in the House of Representatives.

Trump is proving hard to love even within his own party (Reuters)

The high-profile defection is the second of its kind against Mr Trump in two days. Richard Hanna, a Republican congressman from New York who is retiring after this term, announced on Tuesday he would vote for Ms Clinton in November.