(CNN) — Arizona Sen. John McCain withdrew his support for Donald Trump on Saturday in the wake of sexually explicit comments by the GOP presidential nominee that surfaced Friday.
McCain, a leading Republican voice on Capitol Hill, was the party’s 2008 presidential nominee. He also cited Trump’s controversial remarks earlier in the week about the “Central Park 5” — saying he believed they were still guilty in a 1989 rape despite being exonerated years ago — in making his decision.
“Donald Trump’s behavior this week, concluding with the disclosure of his demeaning comments about women and his boasts about sexual assaults, make it impossible to continue to offer even conditional support for his candidacy. Cindy, with her strong background in human rights and respect for women fully agrees with me in this,” McCain said.
“Cindy and I will not vote for Donald Trump. I have never voted for a Democratic presidential candidate and we will not vote for Hillary Clinton. We will write in the name of some good conservative Republican who is qualified to be president.”
In July 2015, early in his presidential bid, Trump mocked McCain’s five-and-a-half years as a prison-of-war in Vietnam, saying, “I like people that weren’t captured.”
Melania Trump condemned remarks made by her husband, Donald Trump, in 2005 in which he made sexually aggressive remarks about women.
“The words my husband used are unacceptable and offensive to me,” she said in a statement released by Donald Trump’s campaign. “This does not represent the man that I know. He has the heart and mind of a leader. I hope people will accept his apology, as I have, and focus on the important issues facing our nation and the world. “
