Former president George H.W. Bush said to back Clinton

George H.W. Bush is set to snub his party’s presidential candidate, Donald Trump, and cross the aisle to vote for Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in the upcoming elections, according to a Facebook post picked up by Politico.

Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, the former Democrat lieutenant governor for Maryland, posted a photograph Monday of herself shaking hands with the 92-year-old former president. The caption read: “The President told me he’s voting for Hillary!!”

Asked to confirm, Townsend, the daughter of the late Robert F. Kennedy, told Politico that she had met Bush in Maine, where he had made his preference clear.

“That’s what he said,” the newspaper quoted her as saying.

Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump speaks at Laconia Middle School September 15, 2016 in Laconia, New Hampshire. Trump is in a tight race with Hillary Clinton as the November election nears. (Darren McCollester/Getty Images/AFP)

Bush’s spokesman Jim McGrath said the elder statesman was “not commenting on the presidential race in the interim.”

“The vote President Bush will cast as a private citizen in some 50 days will be just that: a private vote cast in some 50 days,” he said.

Kathleen Hartington Kennedy Townsend’s Facebook picture of her meeting with George H.W. Bush on September 19, 2016. (Facebook)

The Bushes have stayed out of the presidential race since former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush dropped out of the Republican primaries. Jeb Bush has said he will not vote for Trump.

Several prominent Republicans from the administrations of Bush and his son George W. Bush, president from 2001 to 2009, also plan to back Clinton, among them national security adviser Brent Scowcroft and former commerce secretary Carlos Gutierrez.

But George Bush Sr.’s vice president Dan Quayle told Politico in July that he still hoped both Bushes would back Trump.

“Clearly in their heart of hearts I should hope they would want a Republican president, but they can speak for themselves,” Quayle said in an interview in July.