NYT conservative columnist: I'm still 'never Trump' after first year

http://thehill.com/homenews/media/366872-nyt-conservative-columnist-im-still-never-trump-after-first-year-in

By John Bowden - 12/30/17

New York Times conservative columnist Bret Stephens revealed he still sees himself as a "never Trumper" after a year of President Trump's term in the White House, despite agreeing with many of Trump's policy moves.

In an op-ed in the newspaper Saturday, Stephens wrote, "I still wish Hillary Clinton were president."

"[C]haracter does count, and virtue does matter, and Trump’s shortcomings prove it daily," Stephens writes. "This is the fatal mistake of conservatives who’ve decided the best way to deal with Trump’s personality — the lying, narcissism, bullying, bigotry, crassness, name calling, ignorance, paranoia, incompetence and pettiness — is to pretend it doesn’t matter."

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In early December, he seemed to renounce the Republican Party amid Trump's support for Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore (R), who was accused in a Washington Post investigation of previous sexual misconduct with underage girls.

“I think I speak not only for myself but for many other people that I could never vote ever again for a party that is making an open endorsement of a man against whom there are credible accusations of pedophilia,” Stephens said of Moore.

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