A county Republican Party leader is getting a lot of state and national attention for after watching President Trump鈥檚 press conference with Russian president Vladimir Putin in Helsinki. But unlike Trump, he鈥檚 not walking back or changing what he said.
Chris Gagin says 鈥渟omething just snapped鈥� as he says he watched Trump appear to emphatically choose the version of events that Putin told him over what the US intelligence community was saying. 鈥淚 just didn鈥檛 feel that my conscience would allow me to continue to serve in that leadership role,鈥� said Gagin.
So he resigned as the chair of the Republican Party of Belmont County, a West Virginia border county that . 鈥淚 fully expect that I鈥檒l be ostracized, in a sense, from the party because of this action. But this really is not meant to destroy the party.鈥�
Gagin says negative reaction has shown him some of the tribalism within the GOP, but says he鈥檚 a proud conservative and still supports the Ohio Republican Party and its ticket this fall.
