Former Republican National Committee Chair Endorses Biden Over Trump

Along with his endorsement of Biden, former RNC chairman Michael Steele implored voters to “consider what is in your best interests, and not Donald Trump’s.”

Former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele participates in a debate between chairmanship candidates of the RNC, co-sponsored by Americans for Tax Reform and the Daily Caller, at the National Press Club January 3, 2011 in Washington, DC. | Getty Images
Former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele participates in a debate between chairmanship candidates of the RNC, co-sponsored by Americans for Tax Reform and the Daily Caller, at the National Press Club January 3, 2011 in Washington, DC. | Getty Images

The former chairman of the Republican National Committee (RNC) endorsed Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden over his party’s own incumbent candidate, President Trump.

In a video released Tuesday by the anti-Trump political action committee The Lincoln Project, which he joined in August, Micheal Steele called Trump an “outlaw president clinging to power and defying the will of the people.”

"America or Trump? I choose America," he said.

Steele, a longtime Trump critic, also penned an NBC op-ed published on Tuesday which detailed his decision to endorse Biden over Trump.

“Rather than binding up the nation’s wounds, Trump exacerbates division,” Steele said. “Rather than seeking to build on the legacy of the Republican Party’s founders, of which Trump is surely ignorant, Trump has posited a single purpose for the GOP — the celebration of him.”

Steele also acknowledged that he and Biden differ on many issues and policies.

“But this election is not about those issues or policies. Rather, it is about the course of a nation and the character of her people reflected in the leader they choose,” he continued. “I am asking my fellow Americans to consider what is in your best interests, and not Donald Trump’s.”

Steele became the RNC’s first African American chairman in 2009 and served until 2011.. He is now a political analyst for MSNBC and appeared on the network’s “Morning Joe” show Tuesday to talk about his endorsement of Biden.

"This is a failed moment. And the country needs to do better than this because the country can do better than this," he said.

Steele isn’t the first high-profile Republican to endorse Biden over Trump. In September, Cindy McCain, widow of the late Republican Sen. John McCain, announced her endorsement for Biden, similarly saying, “We are Republicans, yes, but Americans foremost.”

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