close
close

Association-anemone

Bite-sized brilliance in every update

    • GOP support for Harris grows as they recognize Trump is unfit
    asane

    GOP support for Harris grows as they recognize Trump is unfit

    Online Niel Posted on

    “Trump must be defeated and we must protect the Constitution,” said Wisconsin state Sen. Robert Cowles of Green Bay, one of the swing state’s longest-serving Republicans.

    play

    Conservatives and independents shouldn’t think too much of liberals like me who fear what might happen if Donald Trump becomes the next president. We are legion, but our opinions are predictable.

    No, the people worth watching as we approach next month’s election are Republicans who fear what might happen if Trump wins. I am too large in number, and growingbut more importantly, their voices are not predictable.

    They are, in fact, remarkable. I certainly cannot remember a time when so many senior and prominent members of a political party outright rejected their own party’s presidential candidate. With former President Trump, it happened and continues to happen again and again.

    Respected Republicans in two key swing states are backing Harris

    On Thursday, influential former U.S. Rep. Fred Upton of Michigan, a Republican who served in Congress for 36 yearsargued Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris, saying of Trump: “He’s just out of his mind. We don’t need this chaos. We have to move forward and that’s why I’m where I am.”

    Also Thursday Wisconsin’s longest-serving Republican lawmakerstate Sen. Robert Cowles of Green Bay, announced, “I plan to vote for Harris.”

    “Trump must be defeatedand we must protect the Constitution. And the country will continue even with some liberal things that Harris may or may not do,” Cowles said. “You have to have the foundation of the Constitution, to protect democracy. If you don’t have that, we will disappear.”

    Opinion: Fox host defends Trump’s praise of Hitler’s generals. Maybe they weren’t Nazis?

    It’s two key Republican leaders in two key states both denouncing Trump and endorsing Harris on the same day, less than two weeks before the election.

    Let’s not forget that Trump’s former vice president won’t even endorse him

    Of course, any conversation of Republicans acknowledging how unfit Trump is to be president should start and stop with former Vice President Mike Pence. In March, the man who served alongside the former president said he “cannot in good conscience” endorse Trump.

    Pence told Fox News“It should come as no surprise that I won’t be supporting Donald Trump this year.”

    Still, it is a surprise, one that is often overlooked. Trump’s VP doesn’t think he’s fit to be president, largely because of “trying to overturn the election” and “almost killed mike pence” on January 6, 2021. That should be a pretty big red flag for voters.

    But Pence is one of so many.

    Generals who served under Trump make it clear that he is not fit

    In the news this week you’ve heard about Trump’s former chief of staff, retired four-star general Marine John Kelly, saying Trump envied Adolf Hitler’s generals and repeatedly claimed that Hitler “did some good things”.

    Kelly also said that Trump “they certainly fit the general definition of fascists.”

    Opinion: Trump’s MAGA base might want to get ready — Harris might win

    Earlier this month, we learned in a new book by Washington Post associate editor Bob Woodward that retired Gen. Mark Milley, who served as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under Trump, appointed the Republican presidential nominee “fascist to the core.”

    Mark Esper, Trump’s former defense secretary, told CNN on January 6: “I consider him a threat to democracydemocracy as we know it, our institutions, our political culture, all those things that make America great and have defined us as, you know, the oldest democracy on this planet.”

    “If you’re voting for Kamala Harris in 2024, you’re not a Democrat. You are a patriot.

    Stephanie Grisham, who served as White House press secretary under Trump, endorsed Harris and spoke at the Democratic National Convention this summer, saying Trump has “no empathy, no morals, and no allegiance to the truth.”

    Lifetime Republican and former Georgia Gov. Geoff Duncan also spoke at the DNC and said, “Let me be clear with my Republican friends back home watching: If you vote for Kamala Harris in 2024, you are not a democrat You are a patriot.“

    Last December, Alyssa Farah Griffin, Trump White House communications director, he told ABC News: “Basically, a second Trump term could spell the end of American democracy as we know it, and I don’t say that lightly. I’m really worried about what the term would actually look like.”

    The Cheneys and former Bush Attorney General? Not exactly liberals.

    In September, Alberto Gonzales, former US attorney general and adviser to the president in the George W. Bush administration, he wrote in Politico: As the United States approaches a critical election, it cannot sit idly by while Donald Trump — perhaps the most serious threat to the rule of law in a generation — contemplates a return to the White House. For this reason, even though I am a Republican, I have decided to support Kamala Harris for president.”

    Both exes Vice President Dick Cheney and his daughter, former US Representative Liz Cheneyconservatives to the bone, denounced Trump and supported Harris.

    Over 200 Republicans who previously worked for former President George W. Bush, Sen. Mitt Romney and the late Sen. John McCain signed an open letter in August endorsing Harris over Trump.

    The letter is readin part: “Of course, we have a lot of honest ideological disagreements with Vice President Harris. … That’s to be expected. The alternative, however, is simply unbearable.”

    There isn’t enough space to list all of Harris’ GOP endorsements

    I could go on listing the Republicans who have spoken out about the threat Trump poses, but I don’t have the space or time. That fact alone should be disqualifying for Trump.

    As the final days of this campaign wind down, I hope voters see the flashing red lights and hear the warnings from liberals like me who believe a second Trump term would be calamitous.

    But I hope even more that they hear and listen to the people who served with Trump, the people who know him best and are in the same political party, the people who shine the same red lights and send the same strong warnings.

    Fear of Trump, in our deeply divided nation, is a strikingly bipartisan issue. That should tell you something. Please do.

    Follow USA TODAY columnist Rex Huppke on X, formerly Twitter, @RexHuppke and Facebook facebook.com/RexIsAJerk

    Online Niel
    View all posts

    You Might Also Like