CONWAY -- U.S. Rep. Bruce Westerman said Monday that he plans to vote for Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump -- two days after he said he prefers that Trump consider what's best for the nation -- and that he would support vice presidential candidate Mike Pence to lead the GOP ticket if Trump stepped aside.
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But the Hot Springs Republican said that Trump "did a much better job" in Sunday night's debate with Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, particularly when they talked about issues to spell out their policy differences.
Westerman said Trump "has told us in the [U.S. House] Republican conference that he supports the ideas we have" to strengthen national security, fix health care, change tax policy, rein in federal regulation, regain congressional authority and make anti-poverty programs work.
"Our country is in a critical time right now. I believe four years of Hillary Clinton would be like four more years of the Obama administration," Westerman told reporters after his 4th District debate with Libertarian candidate Kerry Hicks of Malvern, a moss supplier, at the Arkansas Educational Television Network at Conway. Their debate was broadcast later Monday.
[INTERACTIVE: The 2016 election in Arkansas]
The 4th District spans southwest Arkansas from the southern border to about 20 miles east of Rogers.
Westerman noted that Trump has apologized over the lewd remarks he made about women in a 2005 video.
"Whether it was locker room talk or bedroom talk or whatever you want to call it, it's not acceptable," Westerman said. "It's certainly not becoming of a president. That's why I came out strong against his statement. That's why I will continue to come out strong against things that he might say.
"Again, this was 11 years ago. He was an entertainer more than anything else. He wasn't a presidential candidate at the time. But he has to realize the seriousness of the job of the president of the United States and know those type of comments, whatever kind of talk it is, is unacceptable," he said.
Westerman said he wasn't at the debate with Hicks to defend Trump over comments made 11 years ago and, if somebody made those remarks about his daughter and wife, "there probably [would have] been fighting words."
"Hopefully if he is elected president, he will control his mouth much better," Westerman said.
Hicks said he also condemns Trump's remarks in the 2005 video, calling it "talking trash."
"But if he gives an apology and we believe that the apology is sincere, we need to move on instead of making it a monthlong news story," he said.
Hicks later told reporters that he must vote for Libertarian presidential nominee Gary Johnson.
That's because if the Libertarian nominee doesn't win 3 percent of the votes cast for president in Arkansas, the Libertarian Party will be forced to collect 10,000 signatures of registered voters to qualify as a political party in Arkansas in the 2018 election, he said. Collecting those signatures cost the Libertarian Party about $80,000 to qualify as a party for the 2016 election, he said.
"To be honest, he was not the person that I favored in the convention, but he is our nominee," Hicks said of Johnson. Hicks declined to say who his first preference was to be the party's nominee.
During their hourlong debate, Westerman and Hicks said they want to curb federal spending, the $20 trillion national debt and federal regulations.
Hicks said the federal government must stop spending half a trillion dollars a year on the Pentagon and must have a smarter national defense.
But Westerman said the federal government spends more than $3 trillion a year, and more than $1 trillion of that goes for spending for the Pentagon and other discretionary programs. Mandatory spending on Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, social welfare programs and interest on the debt makes about two-thirds of federal spending, he said.
Medicare is projected to be insolvent by 2030 and Social Security is projected to be insolvent by 2034, he said, and "we absolutely have to focus on how we get the mandatory spending under control."
Hicks said he isn't in favor of gutting programs for people on Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.
Westerman said he wants to fix the Medicare and Social Security programs because "if we don't fix them, they are about to go bankrupt." He said he wants to cap the amount that states can spend on Medicaid.
Hicks said police officers should be unarmed in most occasions and should not need to use a gun. He also said a police officer should understand the neighborhood in which he works.
"He needs to understand the fear if there is a fear in the neighborhood where he is working," Hicks said. "We need to demilitarize the police."
But Westerman said that police officers must be armed.
"Most importantly, we have to stand behind the men and women who put their lives on the line," he said. "If there is a bad apple, we need to take care of those," but that shouldn't open the door for a citizens group to take the lives of law enforcement officers, he said.
Hicks said he doesn't condone the execution of police officers or anyone else.
Metro on 10/11/2016