No. 3 GOP senator: I’ll still vote for Trump

Sen. Johne Thune, the chamber’s No. 3 GOP leader, is signaling he’ll vote for Donald Trump despite calling on the GOP presidential nominee to drop out of the race on Saturday. 

“He has a lot of work to do, I think, to win this election,” the South Dakota Republican told the Rapid City Journal. “But, I’m certainly not going to vote for Hillary Clinton.”

{mosads}He added that he still has “reservations about the way [Trump] has conducted his campaign and himself.”

Thune — who is up for reelection but is considered safe — made national headlines over the weekend as the only member of GOP leadership to call on Trump to resign after The Washington Post published 2005 audio of the GOP nominee discussing his failed sexual advances on a married woman and grabbing women’s genitals without their consent.

But even though the Republican Conference chairman said Trump’s comments are “more offensive than anything I’ve ever seen,” he said he will only vote for GOP candidates in November. 

“I hope Trump will lay out what he wants to do for the American people,” he said. 

Thune is part of a small but growing group of lawmakers who have softened their initial reactions to Trump’s lewd remarks. 

After calling on Trump to drop out of the race, Sen. Deb Fischer (R-Neb.) said Tuesday that she would still vote for him. 

“I put out a statement … with regard to Mr. Trump’s comments,” she told a local radio station. “I felt they were disgusting. I felt they were unacceptable and I never said I was not voting for our Republican ticket.” 

Darryl Glenn, a Republican candidate for Senate in Colorado, also reversed his position during a debate Tuesday night in which he said that as a man of faith, he was willing to give Trump another chance.

More than a dozen GOP senators have either called on Trump to drop out of the race or have rescinded their endorsement since the 2005 recording became public.