US Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris boards Air Power Two at John Murtha Johnstown-Cambria Airport in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, on September 13, 2024.
Drew Angerer | AFP | Getty Pictures
Greater than 700 former nationwide safety and navy officers endorsed Kamala Harris for president over Donald Trump within the 2024 election in an open letter revealed Sunday by Nationwide Safety Leaders for America.
“This election is a selection between critical management and vengeful impulsiveness,” stated the group, which is made up of bipartisan senior leaders who served within the navy and different places of work and businesses.
“We’re skilled to make sober, rational choices. That’s how we all know Vice President Harris would make a superb Commander-in-Chief, whereas Mr. Trump has confirmed he isn’t as much as the job,” they added.
The assertion, which criticized Trump as “impulsive and ill-informed,” was signed by 741 folks, together with vocal Harris-supporting Democrats like Hillary Clinton and John Kerry, in addition to Republican Secretaries of Protection Chuck Hagel and William Cohen. Hagel and Cohen each served beneath Democratic presidents.
The signatories embody 15 retired four-star generals, 12 former Cupboard-level officers, eight service secretaries, greater than 120 ambassadors and three Trump-era officers: Retired U.S. Military Gen. Peter Chiarelli, former Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Employees retired four-star Gen. Paul Selva and retired Main Gen. Eric Thorne Olson.
“Mr. Trump is the primary president in American historical past to actively undermine the peaceable switch of energy, the bedrock of American democracy,” the letter stated. “He has proven no regret for attempting to overturn the 2020 election on January sixth, guarantees to pardon the convicted perpetrators, and has made clear he is not going to respect the outcomes of the 2024 election ought to he lose once more.”
The letter additionally accused Trump of publicly and privately criticizing the leaders of American allies like the UK, Israel, Australia, Canada, and Germany, and criticized his determination to desert allied Kurdish fighters in Syria within the face of an anticipated Turkish assault in 2019.
“These are the identical individuals who bought our nation into infinite overseas wars and profited off of them whereas the American folks suffered,” Trump Marketing campaign Communications Director Steven Cheung advised CNBC in response to the essential letter. “President Trump is the one President within the trendy period to not get our nation into any new wars.”
Sunday’s endorsement comes after 111 Republican former nationwide safety and overseas coverage officers endorsed Harris in a letter Wednesday, saying that Trump is “unfit to serve once more.”
Harris’ marketing campaign has been in search of to attraction to conservative and average voters who could also be on the fence with voting for Trump, beginning with the launch of “Republicans for Harris” in August. Since then, the vice chairman has obtained endorsements from numerous high-profile Republicans, together with Dick Cheney, former vice chairman to George W. Bush.
“Mr. Trump threatens our democratic system; he has stated so himself,” Sunday’s endorsement letter stated. “He has referred to as for the ‘termination’ of elements of the Structure. He stated he desires to be a ‘dictator,’ and his clarification that he would solely be a dictator for a day just isn’t reassuring.”
