The National Rifle Association made a last-minute decision to
endorse Donald Trump on Friday — and some members are slamming the move because it comes so early in the process.
"I have no clue why they did it," Brian Abney an NRA member from St. Louis, told
Politico.
He was among a group who came to the association's Annual Members Meeting on Saturday, seeking answers about the endorsement.
Abney said he agreed with NRA officials that Hillary Clinton should be defeated but questioned the Trump announcement.
"I don’t trust her," Abney said of the likely Democratic nominee. "It seems like scandal follows her around."
But he told Politico of Trump: "I think of him about the same way I think of Hillary," since the developer has changed his position on gun rights over the years.
He said that he was weighing a vote to a third-party candidate.
An NRA official told Politico that the group endorsed Trump so early in race because "it was a very clear choice.
"Hillary Clinton is not an option," the official said. "She must be defeated at all costs."
Because any square-off between Trump and Clinton would be "heated," the endorsement now was critical, the official said.
It was "an opportunity to begin the process of bringing everyone together to defeat Hillary Clinton and elect a pro-Second Amendment president."
The NRA did not endorse Mitt Romney in 2012 and did not back Sen. John McCain until October in the 2008 race, Politico reports.
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