Sen. Todd Young says he won’t endorse Trump’s candidacy

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Indiana Republican Sen. Todd Young, who said earlier this year that he was not sure whether or not he would support former president Donald Trump should he become the Republican nominee for president, said Friday, as the presidential race took a clearer shape after Super Tuesday, that he would not endorse Trump’s candidacy.

Young made the comments while speaking to CNN from Washington.

“I trust the people I represent to make their own decisions on who they’re going to vote for,” Young told CNN’s Manu Raju Friday.

Trump roundly beat his Republican rival, former U.N. Ambassador and South Carolina governor Nikki Haley, during the Super Tuesday match-up.

Haley dropped out of the race the next day.

In previous remarks, Trump would not say whether or not he believed Russian President Valdimir Putin was a war criminal after Russia invaded Ukraine, the basis for Young’s comments.

“If you say he’s a war criminal, it’s going to be a lot tougher to make a deal to get this thing stopped,” he said in a CNN Town Hall event in May. “If he’s going to be a war criminal, people are going to grab him and execute him. He’s going to fight a lot harder than he’s fighting under the other circumstance. That’s something to be discussed at a later day.”

FOX News reported Young’s comments that came after the Town Hall.

“Where do I begin?” Young said at the time when asked his reasoning for not supporting Trump.

“I think President Trump’s judgment is wrong in this case,” Young previously said to FOX News. “Putin and his government have been engaged in war crimes. That’s why I don’t intend to support him for the Republican nomination.”

Speaking to CNN Friday, Young said, “Nothing’s changed from my standpoint.” 

FOX News reported that two other Republican Senators have declined to support Trump: Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski and Utah Sen. Mitt Romney.

Young was elected to office in 2017, and was re-elected to the Senate in 2022.