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A group of more than 100 prominent former officials who served in Republican administrations have endorsed Kamala Harris, in a scathing letter that claims Donald Trump is “unfit to serve again as President, or indeed in any office of public trust.”
The letter, obtained by The New York Times, counts signatories including former defense secretaries Chuck Hagel and William Cohen; former C.I.A. directors Michael Hayden and William Webster; and former Trump administration officials Miles Taylor and Olivia Troye, among others.
The signatories admit they probably disagree with Harris on a number of issues but argue that Donald Trump’s affinity for strongmen and behavior on January 6 disqualifies him from serving again.
“As President, he promoted daily chaos in government, praised our enemies and undermined our allies, politicized the military and disparaged our veterans, prioritized his personal interest above American interests, and betrayed our values, democracy, and this country’s founding documents,” the letter reads.
The GOP officials praised Harris for stated positions on defending Israel, supporting NATO, and sending more agents to the US-Mexico border.
“These are the same people who got our country into endless foreign wars and profited off of them while the American people suffered,” Trump campaign official Steven Cheung told The Independent via email. “President Trump is the only President in the modern era not to get our country into any new wars.”
Many prominent anti-Trump Republicans have thrown their support behind the Harris campaign.
Former U.S. representative Liz Cheney, one of Trump’s sharpest (and only) GOP critics in Congress, announced earlier this month she’d be voting for Harris — as would her father, former Bush administration vice president Dick Cheney.
“As a conservative, as someone who believes in and cares about the Constitution, I have thought deeply about this,” she told a crowd in North Carolina. “Because of the danger that Donald Trump poses, not only am I not voting for Donald Trump, but I will be voting for Kamala Harris.”
Others have taken the Harris support a step further, with figures like former Illinois GOP congressman Adam Kinzinger appearing at the Democratic National Convention.
“Donald Trump is a weak man pretending to be strong,” Kinzinger said during the D.N.C. “He is a small man pretending to be big. He’s a faithless man pretending to be righteous. He’s a perpetrator who can’t stop playing the victim.”
The Harris campaign is likely hoping some of these endorsements will win them support from independents and moderate Republicans.
A recent USA Today-Suffolk University poll found that Harris retains a 43-38 lead with independents in the key swing state of Pennsylvania, mirroring her projected lead in the overall presidential race thus far.
