The Trump campaign minimized the endorsement Vice President Kamala Harris received in a Monday letter from more than 200 ex-staffers to four Republican presidents or presidential nominees.
The 238 signatories of the open letter, who worked for former Presidents George W. Bush and the late George H.W. Bush, the late Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), and Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT), criticized former President Donald Trump as a threat to democracy, eliciting a clap-back from the Trump campaign.
“It’s hilarious because nobody knows who these people are,” Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung told the Washington Examiner. “They would rather see the country burn down than to see President Trump successfully return to the White House to Make America Great Again.”
The GOP opposition was reminiscent of a similar anti-Trump group that backed President Joe Biden in 2020. The group included former McCain chiefs of staff Mark Salter and Chris Koch, former McCain Legislative Director Joe Donoghue, McCain’s 2008 campaign press secretary Jennifer Lux, and George H.W. Bush chief of staff Jean Becker.
“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 letter stated. “Of course, we have plenty of honest, ideological disagreements with Vice President Harris and Gov. Walz. That’s to be expected. The alternative, however, is simply untenable.”
The Republicans credited Biden’s win to “moderate Republicans and conservative independents in key swing states” based on exit polling.
The group also criticized Trump’s “chaotic leadership” and the conservative Project 2025 road map for a second term that Trump has distanced himself from and said the plan would “hurt real, everyday people and weaken our sacred institutions.”
“Abroad, democratic movements will be irreparably jeopardized as Trump and his acolyte JD Vance kowtow to dictators like Vladimir Putin while turning their backs on our allies,” the letter said.
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Other signatories included Reed Galen, McCain deputy campaign manager and Lincoln Project co-founder; Jim Swift, ex-GOP operative and senior Bulwark editor; former McCain campaign strategist Mike Murphy; Romney 2012 Campaign Finance Chairman David Nierenberg; George W. Bush Undersecretary of Energy David Garman; and Olivia Troye, former adviser to George W. Bush and Vice President Mike Pence.
Troye was one of several Republicans who spoke at last week’s Democratic National Convention in Chicago in support of Harris.
