After Trump tape, some Georgia Republicans struggle with nominee

Three Middle Georgia Republicans looking at the news from the presidential campaign trail in the last few days agree on at least one thing.

A Hillary Clinton presidency would be disastrous, a train wreck, they say.

But they differ on what they’re going to do with the GOP’s own candidate, Donald Trump. Trump has become toxic for some in the party since the publication last week of a decade-old tape in which he boasts of groping and kissing unwilling women.

Heath Clark, Burt Jones and Allen Peake are not typical voters — they’re all members of the state Legislature in Atlanta. They are the kind of people who might be expected to spend a presidential election season fund-raising, making calls and posting on social media for their party’s candidate.

Clark, R-Warner Robins, made a statement after the Trump tape was published.

“I will never support Clinton but I am not going to support a guy who brags about groping women and trying to entice women into cheating on their spouse,” Clark wrote on Facebook last week.

He said he has thought a lot about the U.S. Supreme Court appointments — the next president will get to nominate one person, and maybe more, to a court that decides some of the nation’s most difficult legal questions. And that might have been a reason to vote for Trump. But Clark said that on moral grounds, he can’t imagine supporting Trump.

State Sen. Burt Jones, R-Jackson, started supporting Trump during the GOP primary and isn’t wavering.

“I think it’s clear that … either one of these candidates gets elected, I don’t think you’re going to be inviting them to your Sunday school to teach the book of Matthew,” said Jones.

He said he’s looking at the big picture.

“I look at the $20 trillion in debt, I look at the illegal immigration problem that we have in this country, I look at the lack of respect for law and order that seems to be growing and festering in this country and I look at how America … can get back on the world stage as far as being a respected power in all facets.”

He said he believes Trump is the guy who can tackle those problems and that Clinton doesn’t have a plan for any of that.

And as for the Republicans in Congress who are edging away from Trump, Jones said he thinks a lot of them are doing it because they are facing re-election and want to stay in Washington, D.C.

“It’s probably because they’ve got their own self-interest at hand as opposed to the bigger picture — the interest of the American people,” said Jones.

Both Clark and Jones are kind of unusual among Georgia Republicans for being outspoken. Top Republican politicians have signed up for Trump fundraisers and endorsed the candidate, but they have generally been quiet otherwise. They have not generally matched Democratic officials’ public support for Clinton. Since the tape came out, there’s hardy been a peep from top GOP elected officials publicly.

Indeed, there are still some undecided voters. Macon state Rep. Allen Peake said he’s had a “hard time” with Trump since the New York businessman mocked former POW and current Arizona Republican Senator John McCain for having been captured during the Vietnam War.

Peake has already said he thinks the Trump candidacy is bad for the party and called the tape the last straw. He said, as he’s said for a while, that judicial nominations are the only reason he’d vote for Trump.

“I got 30 days to make that decision,” said Peake.

Peake said he did not see genuine remorse and contrition come out of Trump for the taped remarks.

The representative knows something about that. He himself has apologized for creating an account on a hookup website for married people.

“Unless he comes out with some genuine remorse and contrition,” said Peake, “you know, I’m not going to vote for him.”

This story was originally published October 10, 2016 at 5:19 PM with the headline "After Trump tape, some Georgia Republicans struggle with nominee."