Over 200 Republicans who worked for former President George W. Bush, Sen. Mitt Romney and the late Sen. John McCain have endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris, warning in a letter that a second Donald Trump presidency would be an "untenable" threat to American and the world order, USA Today reported.
The letter, which as of Monday had amassed 238 signatures, includes several high-profile GOP staffers. Signatories include Bush’s former chief of staff, Jean Becker; two of McCain’s former chiefs of staff, Mark Salter and Chris Koch; Romney's 2012 campaign finance chair, David Nierenverg; and Bush’s undersecretary for energy, David Garman.
The alum of Republican presidential campaigns claim that if the GOP candidate were to win the 2024 election, it “will hurt real, everyday people and weaken our sacred institutions,” The Washington Post reported.
The effort builds on a 2020 campaign by anti-Trump Republican staffers who announced in a similar letter that they would vote for President Joe Biden.
"We reunite today, joined by new George H.W. Bush alumni, to reinforce our 2020 statements and, for the first time, jointly declare that we’re voting for Vice President Kamala Harris and Gov. Tim Walz this November," the alumni wrote, USA Today reported.
In the pro-Harris open letter, the GOP alumni wrote that they would vote for Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, despite policy differences and “ideological disagreements” because the alternative — Trump — would be “simply untenable.”
The Republican alumni warn that Trump and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance, “kowtow to dictators like [Russian President] Vladimir Putin while turning their backs on our allies. We can’t let that happen.”
They also wrote that “moderate Republicans and conservative independents in key swing states” played an essential role in securing Biden’s 2020 presidential win and that these individuals must again “take a brave stand” by supporting Harris over Trump.
Former President Trump’s spokesperson Steven Cheung responded to the letter in an email, claiming that the group “would rather see the country burn down than to see President Trump successfully return to the White House.”
