Bill Bryant refuses to answer simple question about Donald Trump

Bill Bryant has answers for many of today’s hot-button issues, but not for whether he supports Donald Trump for president.

The Republican challenger to Washington state Gov. Jay Inslee would not answer the simple yes-or-no question.

“You know what, let’s talk about what’s going to be on the Governor’s desk…” Bryant began on Seattle’s Morning News.

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KIRO Radio’s Colleen O’Brien stopped him there.

“As the leader of Washington state — if you are to become the leader of Washington state — it’s important for voters to know if you are going to support the GOP president,” she said.

But Bryant didn’t take the bait.

“If I’m going to be the leader of Washington state, I need to have a solution to McCleary,” he said of the requirement to fully fund basic education. “I need to have a solution to deal with the ninth highest unemployment in America. I need to be able to step in and fix Western State Hospital, which is such a mess the government is about to step in. I need to be able to have a plan for dealing with collapsing salmon runs, which are such a mess the government is about to step in.”

So, Colleen asked, is that a non-answer?

It seemed so, as Bryant circled back to the McCleary decision.

“Those are the issues that are going to be on the governor’s desk,” he reiterated. “And we should elect a governor based on how Inslee or I are going to address those issues. We’ve seen how he’s addressed them over the last four years. It’s four years of failure, that’s why we have this mess. And I’m going to continue to talk about his four years of failure and how I want to deal with the issues confronting families in Washington state.”

Bryant has argued that Inslee is attacking Trump as if he’s running against him.

Inslee’s campaign, however, has argued that denouncing Trump’s hateful rhetoric is vitally important.

“I think everyone with a voice should speak against bigotry and unacceptable behavior by any presidential candidate of any party,” Inslee told KIRO Radio’s Dori Monson. “This is why Republicans Dan Evans, Slade Gordon and Rob McKenna and I share the view that he is unacceptable in major ways, and my opponent has refused to step up to the plate because, frankly, he’s putting his party above the country’s values… I think it’s a failure of leadership and a failure to make a decision. Look, if you want to be governor, you ought to at least know who you’re voting for as president.”

As of Tuesday evening, Inslee was leading Bryant in the primary by about 10 percent, with 48.6 percent of the votes.

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