Harris Gets 200 GOP Endorsements, Trump Gets Tulsi Gabbard
We live in interesting times.
NYT (“Former Aides to Bush, Romney and McCain Back Harris Over Trump“):
More than 200 people who previously worked for President George W. Bush and Senators Mitt Romney and John McCain have signed a letter endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris.
Many of the more prominent signatories, including a chief of staff, a legislative director and a deputy campaign manager for Mr. McCain, had signed a letter supporting President Biden in the 2020 election. Others work for organizations like The Bulwark and the Lincoln Project that oppose former President Donald J. Trump’s leadership of the Republican Party.
But the former Republican officials’ renewed support of the Democratic ticket reflects how Mr. Trump has transformed the Republican Party under his leadership, as well as deep and persistent opposition to his candidacy from those who served Republican presidential candidates.
Mr. Romney, Mr. Bush and other high-profile Republicans skipped the Republican nominating convention last month, while the Harris campaign made significant efforts to highlight the support of anti-Trump Republicans — as well as former members of Mr. Trump’s staff who no longer support him — with speaking slots at the Democratic convention last week.
“We have plenty of honest, ideological disagreements with Vice President Harris and Gov. Walz,” the letter said. “That’s to be expected. The alternative, however, is simply untenable.”
The signatories include Mark Salter, a former chief of staff for Mr. McCain; Joe Donoghue, the senator’s former legislative director; Reed Galen, his deputy campaign manager and a co-founder of the Lincoln Project; Mike Murphy, a former McCain campaign strategist; Jean Becker, a chief of staff for George H.W. Bush; and Jim Swift, a senior editor of The Bulwark.
AP (“Tulsi Gabbard, who ran for 2020 Democratic nomination, endorses Trump against former foe Harris“):
Former Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard has endorsed Donald Trump’s presidential bid, furthering her shift away from the party she sought to represent four years ago and linking herself to the GOP nominee’s critiques of Vice President Kamala Harris and the chaotic Afghanistan War withdrawal.
Appearing Monday with Trump in Detroit, Gabbard, a National Guard veteran who served two tours of duty in the Middle East before representing Hawaii in the U.S. House, said the GOP nominee “understands the grave responsibility that a president and commander in chief bears for every single one of our lives.”
The pair appeared at the National Guard Association of the United States on the third anniversary of the Aug. 26, 2021, suicide bombing at Hamid Karzai International Airport, which killed 13 U.S. service members and more than 100 Afghans. Gabbard accompanied Trump earlier Monday to Arlington National Cemetery, where the former president laid wreaths in honor of three of the slain service members — Sgt. Nicole Gee, Staff Sgt. Darin Hoover and Staff Sgt. Ryan Knauss.
On Monday, Gabbard praised Trump for “having the courage to meet with adversaries, dictators, allies and partners alike in the pursuit of peace, seeing war as a last resort.” She condemned the Democratic White House for the U.S. now “facing multiple wars on multiple fronts in regions around the world and closer to the brink of nuclear war than we ever have been before.”
Granting that the “More Than 200 Republicans” of the headlines becomes less impressive once we see that many of them are longtime NeverTrump types, the fact of the matter is that the vast bulk of the senior officials who worked in his administration have publicly declared him unfit for office. That most won’t take the logical next step and back the only available alternative to a second Trump term is disappointing but not surprising.
From a sheer name recognition standpoint, Gabbard possibly outmatches those 200+ signatories all on her own. But she’s frankly a kook who seemed pretty Trumpy in her oddball run for the 2020 Democratic nomination.
I doubt many people will be swayed by either of these endorsements. But I suspect we’ll have more prominent Republicans come out and endorse Harris before it’s all over worth.
Trump joins Bashar al-Assad and Vladimir Putin as politicians Tulsi likes.
I’m not sure why this becomes “less impressive”. In my mind, Trump has had several years to turn people around with his impressive legislative accomplishments, strong leadership, and self-reflection resulting in a kinder, gentler Nazi vision for the country.
He has failed to persuade the “Never Trump” types. And now they are almost uniformly choosing Harris instead of a third-party protest vote. That seems like an escalation of their opposition to Trump, rather than status-quo.
@Tony W: Sure. But it would still be more impressive if these were folks who had served in his administration, vocally supported him in the past, etc. That the Bulwark and Lincoln Project gangs are against him isn’t new news.
@James Joyner: To be even-handed, Tulsi Gabbard doing something kooky like endorsing Trump isn’t new news either.
Oh no, a bunch of career gov’t/polictical DC functionaries don’t like the man who brought change to DC. Many staffers of the Loser Romney 2012 campaign where he demonstrated he wouldn’t even fight for himself much less the voters.
Tulsi brings not only name recognition but also that many Democrats are similarly disillusioned with the new Democrat coalition of far Left Hamas-aligned groups, corporate C-suite, and the advance degreed Urban Monoculture cultists.
The realignment of parties is even becoming apparent in the Democrat party. It will be interesting to see how things settle in November.
@James Joyner:
Yes, who can forget Tulsi Gabbard’s years of service as Harris’s chief of staff /sarc
@JKB: So, you are a fan of Gabbard’s?
@James Joyner: “Sure. But it would still be more impressive if these were folks who had served in his administration, vocally supported him in the past, etc. That the Bulwark and Lincoln Project gangs are against him isn’t new news.”
He has run out of those, I believe.
@JKB:
Don’t sell him short. Trump was an unmitigated disaster, bringing “change” not just to DC but all 50 states and globally.
He’s a flaming trash can of stupid; change isn’t always good–if your house gets destroyed in a tornado, it’s certainly “changed” but not for the better. That’s why people are opposed to him.
@JKB: Change? Like corruption, nepotism, borderline treason? Just look at how many pardons Trump had to give out to his cronies. Now he’s promising to bring back the spoils system to government. Is that the change you want?
@Scott: It’s the change he thinks he wants. Five minutes of dealing with officials who DGAF about you or yours if you don’t bribe them, and his attitude would do a 180 in a femptosecond.
Of course, by that point it’s to late to stop the rot.
@JKB:
So you believe that an obscure congresswoman from Hawaii has statistically significant name recognition outside of Hawaii?
There is no ‘Democrat party’ in America. There is, however, a ‘Democratic Party.’
Leaning into the incoherent kookiness of RFK Jr and Gabbard seems like such a desperate move. Both are in LaRouche territory, and live in a world where the Gestapo is out there crushing their ability to say Hank Aaron died because he was vaxxed. It’s hard to imagine these people connecting to anyone outside of 5% of polled voters.
@al Ameda:
I say we let the morons keep using “Democrat Party.” It’s a great indicator of someone whose opinion is dogshit, and it saves me a lot of time because I know up front they’re not worth listening to.
Tulsi Gabbard is a tool of Russia who has repeatedly spread actual Russian propaganda, so it’s no surprise she’s endorsing Trump.
@JKB:
The party of Trump, Vance, RFK Jr., Hulk Hogan, Kid Rock, Tulsi Gabbard, Rudi Giuliani, Vladimir Putin, Elon and the Proud Boys.
vs.
The party of Kamala, Walz, Joe Biden, Barack and Michelle Obama, NATO, every Medal of Honor winner, Beyoncé, George Clooney and Taylor Swift.
If this was a party party instead of a political party, which party would you attend?
Face it: you’re a member of Losers, Creeps and Weirdos International.
@JKB: ” Many staffers of the Loser Romney 2012 campaign where he demonstrated he wouldn’t even fight for himself much less the voters.”
And let’s not forget that when he complains that Romney wouldn’t even fight for himself, he means Romney wouldn’t call Obama a n****.
@Michael Reynolds:
I know your question was not directed at me, but Kid Rock might be fun at a party and some of his songs are a bit catchy, and I have a soft spot for Hulk Hogan, but the other weirdos on your first list of party attendees is a hard pass for me and quite a few others I would like to imagine.
I bet it would be fun to really party with Obama, I do not smoke, but he likes to light one up, and seems to have a pretty cool and wide variety of taste in music.
@inhumans99: I, too, have a soft spot for Hogan as a long-term wrasslin’ fan, and I’d be curious to meet Vance to see if he really is the a$$hat he plays on TV. RFK, Jr. brings the promise of getting to see if Cheryl Hines is really the “lights are on, but no one’s home” blonde her photos present a lot, but I’m not a party person, so neither group has much appeal to me as party parties. I suspect that most people would prefer the blue party’s party to the red party’s, though.
And I’m the guy who plays Tom Lehrer records for background music at my parties, so that’s another factor warping the value of my thoughts.
If the Sep 5th fundraiser at the Trump golf course for the Jan 6th “participants” goes on as planned, I would hope the Harris campaign uses that in ads. Remind people that at least three law enforcement officers died as a result of Jan 6th, one directly from the events of the day, and two who committed suicide shortly afterwards. Show some pictures of LEOs being attacked with flag poles, etc. The Republican candidate for president is fund raising for insurrectionists. Granted he probably could care less and just wants the money the club is charging and whatever additional funds he can grift off the event, but still call him out for that.
@Lucysfootball: plus the fact that if Trump gets elected, he’ll go ahead and pardon every single one of those crooks. And, given what SCOTUS has said, there’s not a damned thing we can do about it.
@Michael Reynolds:
The first one. It’s bound to break up very soon, and I can go home early.
But I hate parties.
@James Joyner: So let’s go the other direction.
How many Obama administration officials failed to endorse his re-election in 2012? How many Biden folks are “Never Biden” now?
Just because something is baked in and normalized, doesn’t mean it isn’t shocking and weird and disqualifying.
@inhumans99 & @just nutha:
I have a soft spot for the Hulk Hogan character (and also the Hollywood Hogan character). On some level I appreciate Terry Bollea’s ability to do backstage politicking in order to keep his career going. And the more I learn about him and, in particular, all the work he did to screw over other wrestlers and derail careers (not to mention whole companies), I have little to no use for Bollea himself.
Perhaps the worst example was backstabbing Jesse Ventura and letting Vince McMahon know about Ventura’s attempt to unionize the locker room to get wrestlers consistent health care (more than just pain pills).
@Matt Bernius: The more I learned about Terry the more I realized I was completely wrong about him as a kid. Now Hulk Hogan as a character is irreversibly ruined for me.
@Matt Bernius: Of course, you hit perfectly on a distinction I should have made. The soft spot I have is also for Hulk Hogan, the character. I’ve never extended any particular effort in discovering who Terry Bollea, the person, was at all. Don’t care to either. I know what roids do to the personality from experience taking medicinal ones and am passingly aware that Bollea, Fliehr, and probably a host of others made their careers climbing over the backs of and punching down potential rivals as much as necessary. The same jealousies exist wherever there are fewer starring/leader positions than potential stars/leaders–and in most other zones of human endeavor as well.
@JKB:
Dude… Trying to be Lounsbury and failing is a new low for you. Time to reconsider some life choices.
(“Urban Monoculture”? Have you ever actually lived in a city?)
Or visited one for that matter…
Oh, and JKB? About Tulsi… better add her to the long list of “chicks would would never talk to me…”
@Kathy:
Actually, I’m with you.
@anjin-san: I’ve always wondered where the trolls lived, but never cared enough to ask. Except the obvious…..UNDER BRIDGES, duh?! ;-P ;-P
Ohhhhh, I have an edit, and it’s 20 minutes! Jax has done something right! Thanks, Matt B.