Ex-Trump Defense Secretary Mark Esper Explains Why He Won’t Vote For Trump: Doesn’t Meet ‘Basic Criteria’

Former Defense Secretary Mark Esper said on MSNBC’s Morning Joe on Tuesday he would not vote for Donald Trump were the former president to run in 2024.

“So one of your colleagues in the Trump cabinet, former Attorney General William Barr, wrote a book that was also critical of the former president. But when asked if Trump were to run again in 2024, he said he would vote for him again,” said MSNBC’s Jonathan Lemire. “If Donald Trump runs again in 2024, would you vote for him again?”

“No,” replied Esper, who served as Pentagon chief between July 2019 and November 2020.

“Why not,” asked Lemire.

Esper explained:

Any elected official needs to meet some basic criteria. They need to be able to put country over self. They need to have a certain level of integrity and principle. They need to be able to reach across the aisle and bring people together and unite the country.

Look, Donald Trump doesn’t meet those marks for me. We need a new generation of Republican leaders who will advance those core items for any Republican. Stronger military, lower taxes, deregulation, conservative judges, you name it.

But we need people who can do it while growing the Republican base and uniting the country. The biggest threat we face today, I’m afraid, is extreme partisanship on both sides of the aisle, that is causing dysfunction in Washington, D.C., and not allowing us to address these major issues, whether it’s China or the budget, you name it. We have to solve this problem, and we need a leader that can do that.

Esper’s book, A Sacred Oath: Memoirs of a Secretary of Defense During Extraordinary Times, was released on Tuesday.

Watch above, via MSNBC.