PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel on Monday defended his supporting Donald Trump for president, saying he doesn’t think voters cast ballots to endorse their candidates’ flaws.
“It’s not a lack of judgment that leads Americans to vote for Trump. We’re voting for Trump because we judge the leadership of our country to have failed,” Mr. Thiel said at an event at the National Press Club in Washington.
“I don’t agree with everything Donald Trump has said and done, and I don’t think the millions of other people voting for him do, either,” he said.
“Nobody thinks his comments about women were acceptable,” he said. “I agree: They were clearly offensive and inappropriate.
“But I don’t think the voters pull the lever in order to endorse a candidate’s flaws,” he said.
Mr. Thiel said many people in Silicon Valley have learned to “keep quiet” “if they dissent from the coastal bubble.” He said he has a bias for outsider candidates and that Mr. Trump is “the only outsider left in the race.”
Mr. Thiel, who is gay, spoke at the Republican National Convention in July and called for voters to get beyond “fake culture wars.” He has also aided former pro wrestler Hulk Hogan’s lawsuit against the website Gawker over the publication of a Hogan sex tape.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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