GOP Sen. Young declines to support Trump in 2024

Indiana Republican Sen. Todd Young announced on Thursday he would not support former President Donald Trump in his bid for the Republican Party nomination in 2024.

"I don’t intend to support him for the Republican nomination," he told reporters. Trump did not endorse Young for reelection in 2022 after the Indiana lawmaker criticized the former president for the events of the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.

He further pointed to their differences on foreign affairs, Ukraine in particular. Trump, during a CNN town hall on Wednesday evening, declined to call Russian President Vladimir Putin a war criminal and indicated that the goal of U.S. involvement should be to end the fighting.

"I think President Trump’s judgment is wrong in this case. President Putin and his government have been engaged in war crimes. I don’t believe that’s disputed," he said.

Trump did not render a judgement on the matter, but rather asserted that to designate Putin as a war criminal would likely motivate him to fight harder and lessen the possibility of a peace negotiation.

Young did not identify an alternative candidate to whom he would lend his support. Thus far, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, tech mogul Vivek Ramaswamy, and radio show host Larry Elder have also declared their candidacies for the Republican nomination.

Ben Whedon is an editor and reporter for Just the News. Follow him on Twitter.