Mike Lee, Utah senator: Donald Trump would secure his ‘legacy’ by dropping out

Utah Sen. Mike Lee made a personal appeal to Donald Trump to quit the presidential race Sunday, saying the New York real estate mogul can still secure a lasting “legacy” in the hearts and minds of the people by sacrificing his self-interest for the good of the country.

“There is a way here for Mr. Trump to have a legacy in this election cycle, and for his supporters who are really energetic and who have done a whole lot of movement as far as expanding the party to have a lasting legacy that can mean something here,” Mr. Lee said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

“That is, for Donald Trump to step aside, and for the Republican Party to find a candidate who can bring together all the elements in the Republican Party and defeat Hillary Clinton,” said Mr. Lee, a longtime critic of Mr. Trump.

In the wake of released audio of Mr. Trump making lewd, sexually aggressive comments about women, Mr. Lee said the reality TV personality simply cannot beat Mrs. Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee.

“What unites us more than anything else as Republicans is the fact that the Washington political establishment is broken and Hillary Clinton needs to be defeated,” the senator said. “We need a candidate who can do that, and I would like to see the Republican Party identify such a candidate and make that change.”

Mr. Lee said there is still time to replace the businessman at the top of the ticket, but declined to mention whom he would prefer.

“I’m agnostic at this point about who it ought to be,” he said. “There’s still time to decide who it needs to be. But the point is Mr. Trump, in order for any of this to happen, needs to step aside.”

He also said the Democratic Party should drop Mrs. Clinton from its ticket.

“Hillary Clinton is, in fact, a flawed candidate, a deeply flawed candidate,” he said. “So flawed, in fact, that I think the Democratic Party ought to be taking steps to replace her with someone else. For whatever reason, they’ve not.”