International Courant
U.S. Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris boards Air Drive Two at John Murtha Johnstown-Cambria Airport in Johnstown, Pennsylvania on September 13, 2024.
Drew Angerer | AFP | Getty Photographs
Greater than 700 former nationwide safety and army officers endorsed Kamala Harris for president over Donald Trump within the 2024 election in a open letter printed on Sunday by Nationwide Safety Leaders for America.
“This election is a alternative between severe management and vengeful impulsiveness,” stated the group, which incorporates distinguished leaders from each events who’ve served within the army and different places of work and businesses.
“We’re skilled to make sober, rational selections. For instance, we all know that Vice President Harris could be a wonderful commander in chief, whereas Mr. Trump has confirmed himself unfit for the job,” they added.
The assertion, which criticized Trump as “impulsive and ill-informed,” was signed by 741 individuals, together with outspoken Harris-supporting Democrats akin to Hillary Clinton and John Kerry, in addition to Republican Protection Secretaries Chuck Hagel and William Cohen. Hagel and Cohen each served underneath Democratic presidents.
The signatories embody 15 retired four-star generals, 12 former Cupboard-level officers, eight secretaries of state, 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 Maj. Gen. Eric Thorne Olson.
Learn extra: 2024 US Presidential Election
“Mr. Trump is the primary president in American historical past to actively undermine the peaceable switch of energy that’s the basis of American democracy,” the letter stated. “He has proven no regret for his try and overturn the 2020 election on January 6, guarantees to pardon convicted perpetrators, and has made it clear he won’t honor the outcomes of the 2024 election if he loses once more.”
The letter additionally accused Trump of publicly and privately criticizing leaders of U.S. allies together with the UK, Israel, Australia, Canada and Germany, and criticizing his choice to desert Kurdish fighters in Syria forward of an anticipated Turkish assault in 2019.
“These are the identical individuals who have plunged our nation into limitless overseas wars and profited whereas the American individuals suffered,” Steven Cheung, Trump marketing campaign communications director, advised CNBC in response to the vital letter. “President Trump is the one president within the trendy period who has not plunged our nation into new wars.”
Sunday’s endorsement comes after 111 former Republican nationwide safety and overseas coverage officers endorsed Harris in a letter on Wednesday, saying Trump is “unfit to serve once more.”
Harris’ marketing campaign has been making an attempt to attraction to conservative and reasonable voters who may be on the fence about whether or not to forged their poll for Trump, beginning with the launch of “Republicans for Harris” in August. Since then, the vp has acquired endorsements from a number of distinguished Republicans, together with Dick Cheney, former vp to George W. Bush.
“Mr. Trump is a risk to our democratic system; he stated so himself,” the letter of help, dated Sunday, reads. “He has referred to as for the ‘termination’ of components of the Structure. He stated he needs to be a ‘dictator,’ and his clarification that he would solely be a dictator for a day is just not reassuring.”