'Where do I begin?': US Sen. Todd Young rejects Trump for 2024 presidential bid
U.S. Sen. Todd Young told reporters Thursday morning he would not support former president Donald Trump for the Republican nomination for president in 2024.
"Where do I begin?" the senator from Indiana said to CNN reporter Manu Raju when asked about his reasoning.
Young has positioned himself as a foreign affairs expert while in the Senate, and Trump's comments about Russian president Vladimir Putin and the invasion of Ukraine seem to have drawn the senator's ire. Trump spoke at a CNN town tall Wednesday night, where the former president declined to say whether he supports Russia or Ukraine and declined to call Putin a war criminal.
"If you say he's a war criminal," Trump said at the CNN town hall, "it's going to be a lot tougher to make a deal to get this thing stopped. If he's going to be a war criminal, people are going to grab him and execute him, he's going to fight a lot harder than he's fighting under the other circumstance. "
Young told reporters that Trump's judgment was incorrect and that Putin and his country have engaged in war crimes. Young called Putin an enemy of the United States.
Young and Trump have not been political allies. The senator famously told election 2020 deniers "the law matters" when confronted on Capitol Hill about his decision to vote to certify the election results.
The senator did not receive an endorsement from the former president for his run for reelection for a second term in 2022.
Young said he did not know whom he would support for the nomination.
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Several prominent Republicans have expressed doubts about Trump's reelection bid. Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie called Trump "Putin's puppet" Thursday in response to the former president's remarks at the town hall.
Young's decision comes on the heals of a tough period for Trump. He has faced a litany of legal challenges recently with the most recent of a jury finding him liable for sex abuse and defamation in a civil suit filed by E. Jean Carroll. Trump also was indicted on charges related to hush money payments made to alleged ex mistress Stormy Daniels.
His former vice president, Mike Pence, also testified to a federal grand jury investigating Trump's role in the aftermath of the 2020 election.
Contact IndyStar Pulliam Fellow Cate Charron at [email protected] or follow her on Twitter @catecharron.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: 'Where do I begin?': Todd Young rejects Trump's 2024 presidential bid