US: Republican congressman to vote for Clinton

NEW YORK

A Republican congressman on Tuesday became the first in his party to officially throw his support behind Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.

Richard Hanna, a three-term lawmaker from upstate New York wrote on Syracuse.com that he would vote for Clinton in November because his party's candidate, Donald Trump, is "unfit to serve our party and cannot lead this country."

Hanna said he disagreed with Clinton on many issues, but was apparently left without a choice.

"I will be hopeful and resolute in my belief that being a good American who loves his country is far more important than parties or winning and losing. I trust she can lead," Hanna said of the former Secretary of State and first lady.

In an interview with the website, the House of Representatives lawmaker serving part of New York state said for months he contemplated voting for Clinton but it was after he saw Trump attack the Muslim parents of a slain American soldier that his thoughts reached critical mass.

"I saw that and felt incensed," Hanna said. "I was stunned by the callousness of his comments."

Khizr Khan, standing on stage with his wife Ghazala, gave a moving speech during the Democratic National Convention last week, in which he criticized Trump for sowing division and smearing minorities.

"Donald Trump, you are asking Americans to trust you with their future. Let me ask you, have you even read the United States Constitution?" the Pakistani-American lawyer rhetorically asked, drawing a huge emotional reaction from the auidence and across the nation in the following days.

"You have sacrificed nothing, and no one!" Khan told Trump as some Democratic delegates were seen crying.

In response, Trump sought to attack the Khans, saying he would have liked to hear Mrs. Khan speak, but she probably wasn’t allowed to do so, churning out a long-held stereotypical line of an oppressed Muslim woman.

In remarks late last year, Clinton praised the soldier who was killed in 2004 in a car bomb attack as he tried to protect fellow soldiers.

“If you want to see the best of America, you need look no further than Army Captain Humayun Khan.”

Also Tuesday, President Barack Obama said Trump is ‘woefully unprepared’ to lead the U.S. and called on Republicans to withdraw support for the Republican nominee after a series of controversial remarks he made attacking immigrants, minorities and most recently, the Khan family.

“There has to be a point in which you say this is not somebody I can support for President of the United States, even if he purports to be a member of my party,” Obama said.