In an earlier blog post, I mentioned that one key indicator in this election would be former Republican office holders who have no further apparent interest in seeking political office and how many of them speak up against Trump or even for Hillary.  Since these people don’t have to worry so much about holding the base or helping to keep the congress Republican, they can speak their conscience.

We had two outright Republican endorsements for Hillary this morning.  Larry Pressler former GOP senator from South Dakota and Arne Carlson, former governor of Minnesota. Neither of these guys are heavy weights nationally, but these kind of endorsements get noticed in individual states.  And the Republicans for Hillary web site is surely sitting on a staging server for launch some time around the convention.

Here is the Carlson endorsement posted on Politicalwire.com

“I’m not often critical of the media, but I am this year. And it’s driven mostly by television, and ratings. They never really vetted Bernie Sanders, and to this day have not vetted Donald Trump. Hillary Clinton? Oh my God. No human being in history has been more vetted.”

— Former Minnesota Gov. Arne Carlson (R), quoted by City Pages, announcing his support for Hillary Clinton who he said is a “very kind, a very good person.”

As for current office holders, Morning Joe showed clips of McConnell, Ryan, Roger Wicker (head of the GOP senatorial campaign committee and senator from Mississippi), and others flatly and tersely refusing to answer reporters’s questions about Donald Trump. Some of them avoided the reporters entirely.  When Lamar Alexander of Tennessee refused to talk about Trump, a reporter said, “but he’s your nominee.” the normally mild mannered Alexander snapped,”He’s not the nominee yet,”before storming away from the cameras.