John Howard reveals which US presidential candidate he could never vote for as he issues stinging four-word put-down
Former Prime Minister John Howard says he could never bring himself to vote for Donald Trump.
Mr Howard, 85, said the former US president’s refusal to accept the results of the 2020 US election made him effectively unfit to lead the country again.
The former Australian prime minister said he was “glad” he did not have to choose a candidate in the US election, but he saved his sharpest words for Trump.
He said Trump’s behavior after the 2020 election was “incompatible with democracy.”
“I think Donald Trump should have left the field when the referee put his finger up,” Howard said 9Newsto use a cricket analogy.
The former prime minister said Trump’s refusal to accept the results of the last election and his subsequent attempts to overturn the outcome are incompatible with a democratic system.
Mr Howard said he did not envy voters who will be voting in the US elections on 5 November. He found the choice difficult.
“Normally I would have no hesitation in favor of a Republican victory, but there are reasons that prevent me from doing so in this case,” Howard said.
John Howard believes Donald Trump is ‘incompatible with democracy’ after 2020 election
Mr Howard said he was also not particularly impressed with Kamala Harris.
He doesn’t believe she has a good sense of how the American economy should be run.
The former Liberal leader said he was concerned a Harris government would spend too much and irresponsibly.
He shared his view that the flaws in the American democratic system had been exposed during the campaigns, saying that the American political system is far inferior to Australia’s.
“In a parliamentary system, Donald Trump would never have gotten the Republican leadership, and I don’t think Kamala Harris would ever have gotten the Democratic leadership,” he said.
Trump was criticized for his behavior after the 2020 election and his role in the January 6 riots. But Howard was also not so fond of Kamala Harris.
Trump, 78, claimed that Joe Biden was given the presidency in a “fraudulent” 2020 election.
He declared he had won the election long before there was a consensus on the count and took legal action in several states to have the votes recounted.
He further claimed that he had won the election after the Electoral College formally elected Biden president, skipped Biden’s inauguration, and gave a speech in Washington DC telling his supporters that the election had been stolen, before some 2,000 people stormed the Capitol.