Former Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal said that although he’s not currently planning on attending the Republican National Convention, it’s not because of any resistance to Donald Trump.
“Look, no, right now I don’t have any plans,” to attend, he said in an interview with Alisyn Camerota on CNN’s “New Day” Friday morning. “I’m not boycotting it, I’m not deliberately not going because of Donald Trump, but right now there’s not a point for me to go. If there were a point, I would certainly consider going, but I’m not staying away because of a boycott or to express any discontent. Right now there’s simply no point for me to go.”
Jindal defended his support for Trump as the choice between the lesser of two evils given Hillary Clinton as the alternative. He said that though Trump “was certainly not my first choice … for me as a conservative, it really is a binary choice.”
“I don’t think he truly is, on many issues, a conservative,” Jindal said. But he explained that he believes Trump is “more likely to do conservative things” than Clinton.
“I don’t think he’s a Reaganesque leader. I don’t think he can say or do anything between now and November that will convince me that he’s the next Reaganesque leader for our party or for our country.”
Jindal added, however, that “it really is, what is the conservative thing to do? I’m voting for Donald Trump because I don’t think we can afford four more years of liberal incompetence. I don’t think Hillary Clinton is the right leader for our country.”
Jindal addressed sharply critical comments about Trump he’d made during his own 2016 White House bid, when he called Trump “non-serious,” “a carnival act,” “shallow” and “lacking intellectual curiosity.”
“Well I want to be clear, I’ve not all of the sudden changed my views on Donald Trump,” he said. But pointing to issues like Supreme Court appointments, the Second Amendment and religious liberty, the former Louisiana governor said he was more confident in Donald Trump to make conservative choices. “I’m not saying it’s 100% certain that Donald Trump would do it, I’m saying that it’s greater than zero.”