On Deathbed, GOP Senator Apologizes for Trump
Bob Bennett had a message for Muslims
By Arden Dier, Newser Staff
Posted May 19, 2016 8:18 AM CDT
newser.com
(NEWSER) – "Are there any Muslims in the hospital?" former GOP senator Bob Bennett asked as he lay dying in Washington in April, reports the Daily Beast. He wasn't delusional. In fact, he was "sharp as a tack," his son tells NBC News. "I'd love to go up to every single one of them to thank them for being in this country, and apologize to them on behalf of the Republican Party for Donald Trump," Bennett added, according to his family. Though he didn't actually ask around George Washington University Hospital, the three-term Utah senator actually did so in better days.
In December, he'd spoken to people wearing hijabs at an airport, telling them "he was glad they were in America," wife Joyce Bennett recalls. "He wanted to apologize on behalf of the Republican Party." Jim Bennett adds that "disgust for Donald Trump's xenophobia" was foremost in his father's mind in his last days, which followed a stroke and battle with pancreatic cancer. He died on May 4. Bennett had "absolutely no respect for Donald Trump," but "Trump's rise was really the motivation for him to recognize the importance of expressing his desire for inclusion," his son says. He "wanted to see these people treated with kindness." |
