KIRO Radio, KTTH hosts conflicted on Trump ahead of GOP Primary

It’s nearly time for Washingtonians to make their feelings known about Donald Trump.

On the eve of Washington’s Republicans casting their ballot for the May 24 presidential primary, we asked KIRO Radio and AM 770 KTTH hosts for their take on the GOP’s controversial, presumptive nominee for president.

Related: Don’t want to vote for Clinton or Trump? Washington voters are in luck

Jason Rantz

I’m pretty strongly in the Never Trump camp because he’s not an actual Republican whom I share beliefs with, so he won’t get my vote. Hillary? I’m Never Hillary, too, which means I’m going to have to do what I’ve never done before: not vote for president. I may support a third-party candidate if one pops up that shares my values. The truth is, neither Trump or Clinton will spell doom for the country; we have a wonderful system of checks and balances. I just hope Republicans won’t skip voting altogether in Washington, putting Bill Bryant at a disadvantage as he tries to give the boot to Gov. Jay Inslee.

Dave Ross

How I vote will depend a lot on the debates. But if Trump can maintain the attitude he showed in the Megyn Kelly interview, he has a chance to win. I think a lot of people, especially sports fans, will rationalize his insults as part of the (political) football game. You play like a wild beast until the clock runs out and then you re-assume human form.

His aversion to detail helps him because people saw Obama paralyzed by his lawyerly approach. I see very little that could bring Trump down unless he goes all Patton and slaps a soldier.

Dori Monson

As a talk-show host, he amuses me greatly and has provided me more fodder than anyone in political history. As for the rhetoric, it’s part of what has set him apart and is what, at times, is baffling, hilarious and infuriating. Like most everybody else, I run the gamut of emotions when I try to analyze it.

I’m intrigued by him as a politician because I have no idea what or who he would be if he made it to the White House. I have a pretty good sense of who his opponent would be if she made it, and I’m not crazy about that. I have not decided if I’ll vote for Trump or the libertarian, Gary Johnson. But he intrigues and amuses me.

Ron Upshaw

I don’t think Donald Trump will be the next president of the United States. I do think though that if he is the nominee for the Republican Party, he has every right to come to Washington to speak. I was aghast at a sitting governor trying to keep a political rival out of the state. I thought that was juvenile and wrong. Regardless of what you think of his thoughts – and I agree with most of those – he has a right to come and speak. So I thought that was bush league and embarrassing for the state.

Having said that, listening to Donald Trump talk is the best evidence of why you shouldn’t vote for him, so if you’re a Democrat, it works in your favor to have him speak because I think intelligent people can hear that and make up their mind. I think we need to trust the process.

I don’t think there is anything he could do to make me vote for him. But keep in mind, the powers of the president are relatively limited, and that’s the beauty and frustration of democracy in America. It’s very slow and deliberate for this reason: if you do get a wild-card president in there, he can’t unilaterally go in and become a dictator. Even if Donald Trump does become president, there is going to be a limited range of stuff that he can do. As much as people like to think he can “shake it up,” that isn’t the way the United States works.

John Curley

Trump is the rebound boyfriend. The American voter recently divorced from the institution of organized government has fallen in love with the guy at the bar with the best pick-up lines and an open tab. Those American people who are supporting Trump know deep down it’s the wrong move, but they’re so angry and so frustrated that they’re willing to go home with him. If they get burned, at least they knew what they were in for.

Todd Herman

Many conservatives and Republicans have taken the measure of Donald Trump and concluded they cannot support him. Their reasons vary, but what is striking to me is that everything bad about Trump can be said about Hillary Clinton. In fact, much worse can be said of Hillary. This leads me to ask if a greater number of Republicans and Conservatives are more wedded to principle over party than Democrats.

Both Trump and Hillary are liberal.

Both are elites.

Both are squarely in the ruling class.

Both are establishment hacks; Trump didn’t just fund Clinton and Pelosi, he funded Clinton’s money-laundering device, the Clinton foundation, the largest donation Trump has ever made was to McConnell and his PACs when they set out to “crush the TEA party.”

Trump is a vile man who degrades women. Hillary is a vile woman who degrades other women, including a young woman who was raped by a man Hillary defended, though believing him guilty, and then regaled herself in laughter over her ability to fool the jury.

Trump is corrupt; he uses government here and in Scotland to steal people’s houses. Hillary uses government secrets to take bribes laughable disguised as $300,000 for banal speeches where she reveals such amazing insights as the fact that she cannot drive a stick shift.

At least Trump never left people to die as Hillary did in Benghazi.

I could go on for some time.

Many Conservatives and Republicans have concluded they cannot endorse a man like Trump; others, understandably disgusted at the thought of Hillary Clinton ignoring 3:00 AM calls for help from the White House donor party, will once again vote for the lesser of two evils.

My question is still this: why are so many Conservatives and Republicans willing to stand with their principles in the face of a candidate they consider unfit to be president when so many Democrats, who consider Hillary to be unfit to serve, will vote for her.

Michael Medved

I actually believe that Trump represents the very, very worst elements of our politics and would be very threatening and damaging for the future for my kids, the republic, our economy and our national security — and really, more than any other candidate in my lifetime he represents a threat to the viability of the United States of America. On all of the issues, the core issues that make people Conservative, Trump is wrong. He is on the other side. I’m not at all sure that on the issues that matter most to Conservatives that Trump is better than Hillary Clinton. I think he is probably worse.

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