New York: For the first time in 128 years, the Harvard Republican Club will not endorse the party's presidential nominee Donald Trump for the top post, condemning his "racist and misogynistic rhetoric" and repeated "belittling" of sacrifices made by uniformed personnel.
In a scathing attack on the 70-year-old leader, the Club, the oldest College Republicans chapter in the nation, said its members are "ashamed" of Trump just as President Ronald Reagan would be.
The Club called on fellow Republicans to withdraw their support to the "dangerous" man, describing him a "threat to the survival of the Republic".
Lashing out at Trump, the Club said he "simply" does not possess the "temperament and character" necessary to lead the US through an "increasingly perilous world" and in response to any "slight?perceived or real", he lashes out "viciously and irresponsibly".
The Club said it will not stand for his "vitriolic rhetoric" that "poisoning" the country and its children.
"We call on our party's elected leaders to renounce their support of Donald Trump, and urge our fellow College Republicans to join us in condemning and withholding their endorsement from this dangerous man. The conservative movement in America should not and will not go quietly into the night," the Club said in a post on Facebook.
It said even as millions of people across the country are feeling despondent, their wages slashed, jobs shipped overseas, Trump does not have a plan to fix these problems but only to "exploit" them.
The Club said it will be for the first time in 128 years that it will not be endorsing the Republican nominee, strongly criticising Trump's views as "antithetical to our values not only as Republicans, but as Americans".
Alluding to Trump's remarks targeting the parents of Pakistani-origin US Army Captain Humayun Khan, who died while serving in Iraq in 2004, the Club slammed the billionaire tycoon for insulting the sacrifices made by veterans.
"The rhetoric he espouses ?from racist slander to misogynistic taunts? is not consistent with our conservative principles, and his repeated mocking of the disabled and belittling of the sacrifices made by prisoners of war, Gold Star families, and Purple Heart recipients is not only bad politics, but absurdly cruel," it said.
The Club said that at home his "protectionist" trade policies and "draconian immigration" restrictions would enlarge the nation's federal deficit, raise prices for consumers, and throw the economy back into recession.
His foreign policy would "wreak havoc" on the established world order which has held aggressive foreign powers in check since World War II, it said.
The Club also strongly criticized Trump's habit of "incessant name calling and derision", his "complete" lack of knowledge on critical matters, meandering from position to position over the course of the election, and resorting to lies "in a manner more brazen and shameless than anything politics has ever seen".
He is looking to pit neighbour against neighbour, friend against friend, American against American, they said.
