• Politics

Former George W. Bush Cabinet Member Backs Hillary Clinton

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WASHINGTON, DC - FEBRUARY 16: Former Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez (C), the chair of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's U.S.-Cuba Business Council, attends a luncheon following a meeting of the business council at the chamber's headquarters February 16, 2016 in Washington, DC. Commerce secretary in the administration of George W. Bush from 2005-2009, Gutierrez was a key member of the United States Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba, whose goals included increaseing Internet access for all Cubans, support for post-Castro regime "transition planning" to democracy and U.S. government strategic broadcasts and communications to the Cuban people. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Former Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez attends a luncheon following a meeting of the business council at the chamber's headquarters in Washington on Feb. 16, 2016.Chip Somodevilla—Getty Images
By Mahita Gajanan

Carlos Gutierrez, the former Secretary of Commerce under President George W. Bush, has joined the ranks of Republicans who are supporting Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton over Republican nominee Donald Trump.

Gutierrez said Clinton would “make a darned good president” and be better for the U.S. economy, calling Trump’s economic policies a “disaster” during an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper. While Gutierrez agrees with Trump’s free trade platform, he said the Republican nominee’s economic policies would harm the country.

“The economy’s important to me. His plan, I love the tax cuts, I’m a Republican, but then he has this sort of import substitution strategy, which is a strategy like an underdeveloped country, very poor countries think that way,” he said. “(The idea) that we have to substitute our imports. That would be a disaster.”

Gutierrez said he felt he couldn’t support Trump following his racially insensitive comments in June, including one about U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel. At the time, Trump demanded Curiel recuse himself from the fraud cases against Trump University because his campaign’s position on illegal immigration created an “absolute conflict” with the judge, who is of Mexican descent.

“That for me was the end of it,” Gutierrez said. “I don’t want to go back fifty years.”

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Write to Mahita Gajanan at mahita.gajanan@time.com