New York.- Harris on Wednesday after concluding that her party’s nominee, Donald J. Trump, is “unfit to serve as president again.”
In a letter to the public, the Republicans — which included both longtime Trump opponents and others who had not endorsed Joseph R. Biden Jr. in 2020 — argued that while they could “disagree with Kamala Harris” on many issues, Trump had demonstrated “dangerous qualities.” Those include, they said, “unusual affinity” for dictators like President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and “disregard for the norms of decent, ethical and legal behavior.”
“As president,” the letter said, “he fostered daily chaos in government, praised our enemies and undermined our allies, politicized the military and disparaged our veterans, prioritized his self-interest over American interests, and betrayed our values, democracy, and the founding documents of this country.”
The letter condemned Trump’s incitement of the mob attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, aimed at allowing him to cling to power after losing an election, saying that he “has violated his oath of office and brought danger to our country.” It quoted Trump’s own former vice president, Mike Pence, who has said that “anyone who puts themselves above the Constitution should never be president of the United States.”
The letter came shortly after former Vice President Dick Cheney and his daughter, former Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming, said they would vote for Harris. Democrats featured a number of anti-Trump Republicans at their nominating convention last month, including former Representative Adam Kinzinger of Illinois. Pence has said he will not endorse Trump, but he has not endorsed Ms. Harris.
Among the 111 signers were former officials who served under Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush or George W. Bush. Many of them had previously broken with Trump, including two former defense secretaries, Chuck Hagel and William S. Cohen; Robert B. Zoellick, the former president of the World Bank; former CIA directors Michael V. Hayden and William H. Webster; a former director of national intelligence, John D. Negroponte; and former Gov. William F. Weld of Massachusetts. Miles Taylor and Olivia Troye, two Trump administration officials who became staunch critics, also signed.
But several Republicans who did not sign a similar letter on behalf of Mr. Biden in 2020 signed Ms. Harris’s this time around, including several former House members, such as Charles W. Boustany Jr. of Louisiana, Barbara Comstock of Virginia, Dan Miller of Florida and Bill Paxon of New York.
In their letter, the Republicans acknowledge concerns about “some of the positions advocated by the left wing of the Democratic Party,” and some of them have been quite critical of the Biden-Harris administration. Last year, Zoellick wrote a newspaper essay eviscerating Democratic economic policies. But the letter said that “any potential concerns” about Harris “pale in comparison to” those raised by Trump.
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