Former state GOP chairman asking all Republicans to denounce Trump

A lifelong Republican stood up against President Trump before a crowd of Donald Trump’s fervent opponents over the weekend.

Chris Vance, a former state GOP chairman, state legislator and King County councilmember, told KIRO Radio’s Dori Monson Show the organizers of the “Stop the Nazis” rally in Seattle asked him to speak.

“How do you say no to that?” Vance asked. “It’s amazing this day and age we’re even talking about it.”

More people are arming themselves and embracing extreme views, according to Vance. And he doesn’t think Donald Trump’s White House is making things better.

“I think they’re making things worse,” he said.

“People in the streets with urine filled balloons is one thing. The president can do a lot more damage, I think the Trump administration is actually the greater danger to this country right now than either of these groups.”

Vance said he’s troubled by some Republicans who are keeping their heads down, not speaking out, and supposedly trying to keep the party together. He said he’s been speaking out against Trump as president for quite some time.

“Republicans should have stood up and said, ‘We will not let Donald Trump and Steve Bannon and their insane ideology take over the party of Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan,'” Vance said. “He should never have been the nominee and Republicans should be disavowing him now.”

Vance is considering the idea of more people running as centrist independents because he’s extremely “troubled by what’s happened to the party that he’s been a part of for 36 years, but I’m not going to become a Democrat.”

While some Republicans stand up and denounce what Trump says on a case -by-case basis, Vance says it’s not enough. He wants Republicans to stand up and say “Donald Trump should not be president; he should not be the leader of the Republican Party.”

KIRO 7’s Deborah Horne contributed to this story.