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.
