The former chair of the Florida Republican Party, Al Cardenas, says he's voting for Kamala Harris for president on Nov. 5.
Cardenas spoke to Telemundo 51’s Gloria Ordaz alongside Nikki Fried, the chair of the Florida Democratic Party and former commissioner of the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.
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He said his decision to back Harris is about uniting the United States.
“We're probably on the verge of a potential civil war,” he said. “You know, with the former prosecutor, she respects the law, she respects the Constitution, she has a very jovial character, and she's committed to trying to unite the country as best she can. Donald Trump's whole theory is anger and it’s division, and thinking that power comes from getting people to support him against others domestically in America, and that is a very dangerous thing to do. The country cannot function as well as it can if it's divided in this manner.”
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He went on to say: “And I thought that this was one election where, you know, looking at the bigger picture of making America strong, bringing us back together, being more civilized on how I approach politics is more important than political positions or anything else, and so I took that very strange step to step aside from my party's decision to support Donald Trump and support her.”
Cardenas said that he’s met with Harris “a few times” and has “come to the conclusion that she really means to have an inclusive government when she gets elected, and I believe that she has a disposition and the personality to lower tensions in America, where at this point in time there's just too much of it.”
The former GOP chair also said he was voting for Harris to preserve democracy.
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“We have mass assassinations. We have Donald Trump and some of his supporters trying to, you know, bring violence into the process like we did on January 6. To this day, Donald Trump keeps claiming that the election in 2020 was stolen. Well, how can you preserve a democracy if you can't believe in the sanctity of the elections? He keeps saying that January 6, the insurrection… private citizens invading our capitol… He called it a celebration,” he said. “You know, attitudes like that truly bring down the country, bring down what we're all about. And I've said before, the whole world looks at America, the eyes of who's occupying the White House, and that's what reflects on our values, our moral compass, and who we are as a nation. And having him in the White House will bring total confusion in the eyes of the world as to what they ought to do in terms of their alliances and so forth.”
