Shapiro ‘Almost Ready’ to Vote for Clinton, He Declares in Facebook Post
CTA President Gary Shapiro, who supported GOP candidate Mitt Romney in the 2012 election (see 1211080036), plans to vote this year for Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, he said in a Friday Facebook post. “Despite having supported, contributed and advocated for the last few Republican presidential candidates,” Shapiro is “almost ready” to vote for Clinton because “she is experienced, stable and by every measure a better choice,” he said. Shapiro later explained his "almost ready" wording by saying he hadn't yet filled out his absentee ballot, and that he had pondered several options about how he would vote.
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Clinton is “good on tech policy, social issues and hopefully trade,” Shapiro said. “Her husband was a great president who appreciated that businesses create jobs.” Shapiro thinks Clinton “means well” and did “ground breaking work establishing rights of children and fighting for women globally,” he said. “She also is passionate about the value of a free Internet.”
Shapiro thinks Clinton does have her “issues,” he said. “She does what unions want,” and has had “several incidences of poor judgement which I hope she learned from,” he said. “I hope she can understand that American companies are in a global battle and need a supportive government willing to let them hire the best and brightest and not face unfair tax and regulatory burdens.”
Clinton in high school "ran for class president against a guy who said something like you are stupid if you vote for a girl for president," Shapiro said. "Well, I hope tens of millions of Americans vote for HRC not because she may be our first woman president but because she is highly qualified," he said. GOP nominee Donald Trump "not only is unqualified, he is bad for our nation, our ideals and our children and the legacy of moral leadership we owe them," Shapiro said.
When a Facebook commenter asked Shapiro to explain why he worded his post to say he was “almost ready” to vote for Clinton, he responded that he had an absentee ballot in hand but hadn’t “filled it out yet.” Going public on his plan to vote for Clinton “was like going on a diet by telling everyone you are going on a diet,” he said. “Makes you do it.” Shapiro recently pondered voting libertarian or doing a write-in on his ballot, “but I publicly declared” the intention to vote for Clinton, “so I will do it,” he told the Facebook commenter. Shapiro has written "a few opinion pieces over the last year or so giving my opinion of Trump," he emailed us Saturday, but otherwise declined to elaborate on his Facebook response.
In numerous op-ed pieces, blog posts and tweets over the past 15 months, Shapiro has made clear he's no Trump fan. Examples included when Shapiro blasted as "economic suicide" the GOP nominee's vow to force Apple to shift manufacturing to the U.S. from China (see 1601210040) and when he criticized Trump's reaction to the June 12 Orlando nightclub massacre as typifying why he’s “unfit” to be president (see 1606170031). Shapiro also noted a month into Trump's candidacy that he wouldn't "hold meetings at or visit any Trump property or even watch any Trump TV show until he drops out of the presidential race and apologizes to those he slandered," including Hispanics and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.
On Facebook, Shapiro spared few words in again declaring why he thinks Trump is unqualified for the White House. The Republican nominee is “divisive, appeals to our worst tribal instincts and is highly immoral,” Shapiro said of Trump. “He hurt thousands of contractors and investors. He is lazy, didn't prepare for debates or learn the basic facts about foreign or domestic policy. I disagree with the substantive positions he has taken.” A Trump presidency’s “only redeeming virtues” would be its advocacy for “restrictions on regulatory overreach,” lower corporate taxes, investing in infrastructure and “pro-business Supreme Court appointees,” Shapiro said.
But Shapiro thinks Trump is “such a horrible immoral sexist, racist, nasty person he should not sit in the White House,” he said. “The President sets the moral tone for the country and is a model for every child. For the last 40 years we have had R and D presidents who had different views but they were decent and ethical people. I want my children and future grandchildren to know I did what I could to stop this horrible person from being President.” Trump campaign representatives didn't comment Monday.
Shapiro in his public commentary has been relatively kind toward Clinton, such as when he hailed her release in July of her “detailed technology and innovation agenda” as demonstrating her awareness of how “vital” the tech sector is “to the success of the U.S. economy” (see 1607140065). Shapiro also praised Clinton’s choice of Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., as her vice presidential running mate as good for the tech sector because of his past support for free trade, among other CTA priority issues (see 1607230001). But Shapiro recently lambasted Kaine and GOP vice presidential nominee Mike Pence for undermining the tech sector by having "backpedaled their support" for the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the trade deal that Shapiro called "historic and vital."
Shapiro endorsed Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., for president in December before the Republican primaries began (see 1512230039). Until Friday’s declaration that he will vote for Clinton, Shapiro stayed neutral after Rubio scrapped his campaign after his mid-March loss to Trump in the Florida primary (see 1603160059).