Sen. Kelly Ayotte ‘misspoke’ when she called Donald Trump a role model for children
After agreeing that Donald Trump would be a role model for children, Sen. Kelly Ayotte now says she “misspoke.”The Republican senator from New Hampshireraised eyebrows following her original response Monday night in a debate hosted by NECN. Asked if she would point to Trump as a good role model for children, Ayotte had this to say:
“I think that certainly, there are many role models that we have and I believe that he can serve as president, and so absolutely, I would do that.”
Less than three hours after the debate ended (and amid some backlash), Ayotte walked back those comments.
“I misspoke tonight,” she said in a statement. “While I would hope all of our children would aspire to be president, neither Donald Trump nor Hillary Clinton have set a good example and I wouldn’t hold up either of them as role models for my kids.”
Ayotte, who is running for re-election against New Hampshire Gov. Maggie Hassan, a Democrat, has maintained that she’ll vote for Trump, but will not endorse him. When pressed on her refusal to endorse, Ayotte cited “disagreements” and compared herself to Hassan, who she said had been “lockstep” with her party’s nominee, Hillary Clinton.
“Who’s going to stand up on the behalf of the people of New Hampshire?” she asked.
During her re-election campaign, Ayotte has tried to distance herself from the Republican party line—as well as the party’s nominee, who she has repeatedly criticized.
While polls in New Hampshire show Clinton’s lead over Trump consistently in the upper single digits, Ayotte and Hassan’s race appears virtually deadlocked.
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