This article originally appeared on AlterNet.
As deplorable as Donald Trump's comments on the 2005 tape were, there were plenty of other opportunities for Republicans to jump ship over the past 17 months. Here's why four former Trump supporters will no longer support the nominee.
Ben Mighall (D-WI)
Mighall's story is unique in that he's the only Democrat on this list. Originally a Bernie Sanders supporter, Trump's appeal as an outspoken outsider candidate drew Mighall in. "I'm naturally pretty suspicious of people ingrained in backroom Washington politics," Mighall admitted. Mighall voted for Trump in the Wisconsin primary, but began to reconsider supporting Trump following the Orlando shooting in June. He'd hoped Trump would support stronger gun restrictions, especially following the mass murder.
"I'm an owner of a gun. I love guns. I plan to get more guns, but I want to do it legally," Mighall explained. "Trump want say that the NRA is completely right [in saying] there should be no basic restrictions on buying a gun. There should be."
Mighall also wasn't a fan of Trump's disregard for environmental issues, hatred of vaccinations and "tones of ignorance." Saying, 'the blacks love me, the Mexicans love me,' is like something your grandfather would say at a dinner table that you wouldn't repeat to your friends."
Chris Lucas (R-IN)
Like Mighall, Lucas was drawn to Trump because of his outsider appeal. "I had pretty much made up my mind that people like Ted Cruz, Rubio, Kasich were pretty bad people. They all had some kind of ties back to Bush," Lucas said.
Lucas started to question Trump's "outsider" status last December when Trump professed his love of Reagan to Alex Jones.
"Here's a man who says he's going to be tougher on immigration and he's not going to pass amnesty, [but] he idolizes Ronald Reagan, who passed amnesty," Lucas pointed out. He wondered then if Trump was a plant put in the race by the Democrats. And he also questioned Trump's views on certain issues he disagreed with, such as torture.
"When he said, 'I would do more than waterboarding,' as a Christian, I don't think we should ever waterboard or torture prisoners. Hey, maybe they do that to us, but do onto others," Lucas said.
Jake Anantha (R-NC)
Anantha was interviewed on major networks shortly after his ironic experience at a Trump rally in August in which he was profiled as a protester and escorted out. Having supported the nominee on issues such as radical Islam, the half-Indian teen had planned on voting for Trump in the general election until that day.
"I would like for them to just say, 'we're sorry, we made a huge mistake, we profiled you and we realize what we've done is wrong,'" Anantha said about the Trump campaign.
Adeel Tahir (R-NH)
Tahir planned on going all in for Trump early on in the race. That was until Trump proposed a ban on Muslim immigration in the wake of the Paris attacks in December 2015. Tahir's family immigrated to the United States from Pakistan in the 1970s and still owns properties overseas. What if he went to check on them? Would he be allowed back in?
"It's scary," he said. "For someone to say, you were born and raised here in this country but you're not allowed here because you're Muslim... it hurts."
Tahir wished Trump would get to know more Muslims and potentially change his views. "I just wish he could spend one day with us," he said of Trump.
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