On September 13, 2024, U.S. Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris boarded Air Force Two at John Murtha Johnstown-Cambria Airport in Johnstown, Pennsylvania.
Drew Angerer | AFP | Getty Images
More than 700 former national security and military officials have endorsed Kamala Harris' bid to defeat Donald Trump for president in the 2024 election. open letter The U.S. national security leader issued a statement on Sunday.
“This election is a choice between serious leadership and the urge for revenge,” said the group, which is made up of senior leaders from both parties who have served in the military and other offices and agencies.
They added: “We are trained to make clear, rational decisions. That's why we know Vice President Harris will make an excellent commander-in-chief, and Mr. Trump has proven that he is not up to the job.”
The statement criticizing Trump as “impulsive and ill-informed” was signed by 741 people, including Democrats such as Hillary Clinton and John Kerry who have vocally supported Harris, as well as Republican Defense Secretary Chuck Hager. Er and William Cohen. Both Hagel and Cohen served under Democratic presidents.
Signatories include 15 retired four-star generals, 12 former cabinet-level officials, eight service secretaries, more than 120 ambassadors and three Trump-era officials: retired U.S. Army Gen. Peter Chiarelli, retired Joint Chiefs of Staff Former Vice Chairman four-star Gen. Paul Selva and retired Maj. Gen. Eric Thorne Olson.
“Mr. Trump is the first president in American history to actively undermine the peaceful transfer of power that is the cornerstone of American democracy,” the letter said. “He has shown no reluctance to attempt to overturn the 2020 election on January 6.” remorse, promise to pardon the convicted perpetrators, and make it clear that he will not respect the outcome of the 2024 election if he loses again.”
The letter also accuses Trump of publicly and privately criticizing the leaders of U.S. allies including the United Kingdom, Israel, Australia, Canada and Germany, and criticizing his decision to abandon Kurdish allies in Syria in 2019 amid expected Turkish attacks.
In response to the critical letter, Trump campaign communications director Steven Cheung told CNBC: “These are the people who keep our country engaged in endless foreign wars and profit from them, while the American people “President Trump is the only president in modern times who has not plunged our country into any new wars. “
On Sunday, 111 former Republican national security and foreign policy officials endorsed Harris in a letter Wednesday, calling Trump “unfit to serve again.”
Harris' campaign, which began with the launch of “Republicans for Harris” in August, has sought to appeal to conservative and moderate voters who may be on the fence about voting for Trump. The vice president has since received the support of several prominent Republicans, including Dick Cheney, George W. Bush's former vice president.
“Mr. Trump threatens our democracy; he has said so himself,” Sunday's endorsement letter read. “He called for the 'termination' of parts of the constitution. He said he wanted to be a 'dictator,' and his clarification that he would only be a dictator for a day was not reassuring.”