MSNBC Never Trump Conservative Charlie Sykes Endorses Kamala Harris — Calls Out Anti-Trump Republicans Not Voting For VP

Conservative MSNBC columnist and self-described “Never Trumper” Charlie Sykes endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris — while calling out anti-Trump Republicans who still won’t vote for her.

The VP has earned endorsements from many prominent former supporters of Trump, as well as some members of Trump’s first-term administration and scores of Republicans. Others have said they won’t vote for Trump, but also can’t find their way to pull the lever for Harris.

On Friday, the campaign touted the endorsement of Sykes, a pioneer of the Republican “Never Trump” movement. Said Sykes:

I don’t think this is a normal election, so I’m doing something that I have to admit would have been a big surprise to me — even a few years ago. But Donald Trump cannot be allowed back in the White House, and the only way to prevent that from happening is to support Kamala Harris.

Sykes made the endorsement in an interview with TMJ4 Milwaukee Chief Political Reporter Charles Benson — during which he also had a message for people like Paul Ryan who want to write in someone else:

CHARLES BENSON: So why vote for her and not maybe take the Paul Ryan route, vote for somebody else that you would want as a conservative?

CHARLIE SYKES: Well, I mean, let’s stick with that because, you know, it is an extraordinary moment where so many of the people who work closely with Donald Trump are saying we’re not going to support him.

Now, they may not be endorsing Kamala Harris, but his vice president, Mike Pence, the former speaker, Paul Ryan, Mitt Romney, the nominee of the of the Republican Party, all saying we do not think that this man is fit for office.

Now, they haven’t crossed over to vote for the Democrat. And I understand that because there’s there’s a lot of partisan muscle memory. And I understand that for a lot of Republicans and conservatives, you know, pulling that lever is a very, very difficult choice.

But ultimately, it’s either going to be him or it’s going to be her. And if you regard Donald Trump as an existential threat to our constitutional Republican values, then I don’t think that there’s any choice.

I mean, it might feel good, might feel warm and fuzzy to write in George Washington, but George Washington’s not on the ballot this time.

CHARLES BENSON: What’d you do in 2020?

CHARLIE SYKES: I did vote for, I did vote for Joe Biden. And I expected that he was going to, I expected he was going to win back then. But I thought it was so important to make a shift. But again, that wasn’t an endorsement of all of his policies. I said I expect to disagree with him on a lot of things.

But ultimately, again, this is not about whether I agree on tax policy or he will agree on student loan debt, which I don’t. It’s about whether you’re going to have fidelity to democratic norms. It’s whether or not you’re going to be a decent person or someone who’s going to tear apart the fabric of this country.

CHARLES BENSON: Well, what would you say? I mean, I was just at one of his rallies and he often brings up, you know, people may not like him personally or concern about style versus the substance. You know, you’re going to hear it from your conservative friends.

Charlie? Charlie, what’s wrong? You know, are you missing the bigger picture here by sticking to one issue, which is important but without seeing the bigger picture?

CHARLIE SYKES: This is the bigger picture. It is a bigger picture when you have somebody kowtowing to dictators fawning on Vladimir Putin, willing to abandon our allies and NATO. I mean, I remember when America was the shining city on the hill where the rest of the world looked to us for democratic values to shred those democratic values. Is is frankly goes to the big picture. What is America? Who are we? What do we stand for?

Watch above via TMJ4 Milwaukee .