More than 200 Republicans worked for both of the late Bush presidents Senator John McCain and Senator Mitt Romney They declared their support for the presidential campaign of Vice President Kamala Harris The open letter was published on Monday.
The letter comes after several Republicans have publicly criticized former President Donald Trump He spoke at the National Congress of the Democratic Party last week in Chicago.
Which is in their letter reported first According to USA Today, the former staff members indicated their opposition to Trump during the 2020 election cycle and “jointly declare that we will vote for Vice President Kamala Harris and Governor Tim Walz this November.”
“Of course, we have many honest, ideological differences with Vice President Harris and Governor Waltz. That’s to be expected,” they wrote. “And the alternative is simply unacceptable.”
The group has criticized Trump’s policies and the former president’s 2025 project proposed by the Heritage Foundation for Trump’s second term. he was trying to get awaysaid the proposals would “hurt real, everyday people and weaken our sacred institutions.”
They argued that Trump’s approach to foreign policy also poses a threat to democratic movements abroad, and concluded their letter by imploring moderate Republicans and conservative independents to “once again take a bold stand and vote for leaders who will strive for consensus, not chaos.” Work for unity, not division, which will make our country and our children proud by voting for Harris and Walz.
Steven Cheung, a spokesman for Trump’s campaign, said in a statement that the letter was “ridiculous because nobody knows who these people are. They would rather see the country burn than see President Trump successfully return to the White House to make America great again.”
The Harris campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The letter was signed by Mark Salter, McCain’s former chief of staff, and Olivia Troye, a former aide to Vice President Mike Pence. Troy He spoke against Trump at the congress of the Democratic Party last week.
The group joins more than twenty Republicans — former governors, members of Congress and Trump administration officials Sharp critics of Trump – who pledged support for Harris’ presidential campaign this month.
A similar group of anti-Trump Republicans, incl Several hundred former aides to George W. Bush and McCainEndorsed Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign.
BushMcCain and Romney have spoken out against Trump for his inflammatory remarks and have been the target of the former president’s attacks. (McCain, of Arizona, died in 2018, a decade after becoming the GOP presidential nominee; Romney, of Utah, was the party’s nominee in 2012.)
Bush, whose brother Jeb Bush ran against Trump in the 2016 Republican presidential election, did not attend the Republican National Convention last month. He did not openly criticize Trump, but he did fundraise for 2021 for then-Rep. Liz CheneyR-Wyo., a vocal critic of Trump, served as vice chairman of the House committee on Jan. 6.
McCain said in 2016 Citing Trump’s inflammatory comments about women, she said she could not support Trump or Democrat Hillary Clinton. Later his wife Cindy McCain Biden confirmed in the 2020 elections.
Romney, who He voted twice to impeach Trump In his impeachment trials, there is repeatedly condemned the former president and said that he was jeopardizing the future of the country.
Amanda Terkel contributed.