Wednesday on Newsmax TV’s ”The Steve Malzberg Show,” Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) got into a heated debate with host Steve Malzberg over Lee not endorsing presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump given the Utah senator’s constitutional concerns about the several potentially very liberal Supreme Court Justice appointments President Hillary Clinton would make.
Exchange begins at the 6:33 minute mark in the video
Partial transcript as follows:
MALZBERG: [I] just don’t understand why you are not out there you know, trumpeting Trump.
LEE: Hey look, Steve, I get it. You want me to endorse Trump.
MALZBERG: Well, I don’t understand why you are not really.
LEE: Well, we can get into that if you want. I mean we can get into the fact that he accused my best friend’s father of conspiring to kill JFK. We can go through the fact that he has made some statements that some have identified correctly as religiously intolerance. We can get into the fact that he is so unpopular because my sate consists of members who were a religious minority church — a people who were ordered exterminated by the governor of Missouri in 1839 and statements like that make them nervous. Now look, these things are not something that I couldn’t get over if I heard the right things out of him. But if you want to go to why I have concerns, I can go on if you like. I hope I can get over these concerns. I hope Mr. Trump can help me identify them. But don’t sit here and tell me Steve that I have no reason to be concerned about Donald Trump.
MALZBERG: Well again, I’m not going to tell you anything. I was asking you. I wasn’t telling you. It’s just — to me — the concerns you should have about Hillary Clinton dwarf most —if not all in my view —I can’t speak for you of what you just said. She is under FBI investigation, takes money from countries that kill gays, that treat woman like garbage. We know about the email scandal. I mean the list goes on. The Clinton Foundation, the conflict of interest — I mean the corruption, the lifelong corruption. I mean it goes on and on and on. And the first thing — again with all due respect, you said my best friend’s father killed Kennedy — or was involved in it. So I hope it’s not personal.
LEE: He said that. He actually said that.
MALZBERG: But that’s your—
LEE: — without any scintilla—without a scintilla of evidence. That concerns me. And again, I hope I can get over this because I can’t vote for Hillary. I know there is no possibly of that. What I am saying is Donald Trump can still get a vote from a lot of conservatives like me, but I would like some assurances on where he stands. I would like some assurances that he is going to be a vigorous defender of the U.S. Constitution That he is not going to be an autocrat. That he is not going to be an authoritarian. That he is not somebody who is going to abuse a document that I have sworn an oath to uphold and protect and defend. I am sorry sir, but that is not an unreasonable demand.
MALZBERG: OK, sure I understand. And I appreciate the back and forth, sir.
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
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