Friday, former vice president Dick Cheney (R) announced that that he, too, is endorsing Kamala Harris (D) for president.
In our nation’s 248-year history, there has never been an individual who is a greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump. He tried to steal the last election using lies and violence to keep himself in power after the voters had rejected him. He can never be trusted with power again.
As citizens, we each have a duty to put country above partisanship to defend our Constitution. That is why I will be casting my vote for Vice President Kamala Harris.
Not only is he joining his daughter, former Rep. Liz Cheney (R), and Jim McCain, former Sen. John McCain’s son, he is joining hundreds of Republicans, military and national security leaders, and business leaders. The extent of this coalition is unheard of in modern politics. And it is under-reported.
Almost 100 business leaders
Also on Friday, almost 100 business leaders from tech and Wall Street endorsed Harris.
Among the signatories is James Murdoch, “former CEO of 21st Century Fox and an heir to the Murdoch family media empire” as well as Tony James, former president and COO of Blackstone; entrepreneur Mark Cuban (who is disrupting pharmaceutical sales); and former Tesla board member Steve Westly.
Silicon Valley executives include Box CEO Aaron Levie, former LinkedIn CEO Reid Hoffman, former Lyft CEO Logan Green, former PayPal CEO Dan Schulman, Snap chairman Michael Lynton, and Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman.
Other public companies represented include former Ford CEO Alan Mulally, former PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi, former Paramount and FOX CEO Barry Diller, and former Starbucks CEO Laxman Narasimhan.
300+ national security leaders
In late August, General Larry Ellis, a retired four-star general in George W. Bush’s administration, endorsed Harris. This is his first presidential endorsement. In a letter to ABC News, Ellis wrote:
Donald Trump has demonstrated that he is wholly and dangerously unfit for Commander-in-Chief. He praises and emboldens our enemies that seek to weaken our country. He has denigrated our brave men and women in uniform.
In July, Common Defense, the nation’s largest grassroots veterans organization, announced its endorsement of Harris.
Also in July, 350 former national security leaders endorsed Harris.
Given her record of leadership on national security as Vice President, there is no question she is the best qualified person to lead our nation as Commander in Chief. Vice President Harris would be a strong and effective leader beginning on Day 1 as President…
As Vice President Harris has made clear on the campaign trail, a second Trump term would threaten our allies, embolden our adversaries, and weaken America. Contrary to the Trump-Vance agenda, she is clear that isolation is not insulation and that a globally engaged America is a strong America. She understands the stakes of this election for global security and stability and she is best positioned to defeat Trump – to the benefit of America and the entire world.
200+ former Republican staff
Also in late August, more than 200 Republican staffers endorsed Harris. USA Today received their letter, signed by staff who had worked for either former President George W. Bush, Sen. Mitt Romney, or the late Sen. John McCain.
Among those who signed the letter in support of Harris and her running-mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, include: former McCain chiefs of staff Mark Salter and Chris Koch; Joe Donoghue, former legislative director for McCain; Jennifer Lux, press secretary for McCain’s 2008 campaign, and Jean Becker, longtime chief of staff for George H.W. Bush.
Also backing Harris are David Nierenberg, Romney’s 2012 campaign finance chair; David Garman, under secretary of Energy for George W. Bush; and Olivia Troye, a former advisor to both George W. Bush and Vice President Mike Pence. Troye spoke from the stage of the DNC convention last week…
Others who signed the letters include: Reed Galen, McCain’s deputy campaign manager and co-founder of the Lincoln Project; Jim Swift, a former Republican operative who is now senior editor of The Bulwark, an anti-Trump news and opinion site; and former McCain campaign strategist Mike Murphy.
Staff who had earlier endorsed Harris include “former Trump White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham and Olivia Troye, former homeland security and counterterrorism adviser to Vice President Mike Pence.”
On [Aug. 23, 2024], a dozen lawyers who served in the White House administrations of Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush released a letter of their own, endorsing Harris because “we believe that returning former President Trump to office would threaten American democracy and undermine the rule of law in our country.”
It’s a purple wave
I agree with Jeff Jarvis: this crossing of the aisles in order to defend the Constitution is “unprecedented.”
It is not a divided America. Patriots are gathering together and putting past differences aside to forestall a next civil war, to support and defend the Constitution. The movement that matters is not Trump’s and the Republicans’ fascist insurrection, which is the one that gets attention in news media. The movement that matters now is this one: the movement for democracy…
For God’s sake, political reporters, stop framing these two movements-—one to tear down democracy, one to build it up–as equivalent sides across your imaginary continental divide.
Indeed. Why am I reading about the lawyers only in a Las Vegas newspaper? These announcements aren’t covered by political reporters and no one has tried to tie them together. They are little ‘news of the day’ blurbs.
The coalition is growing. Younger Americans are registering to vote in record numbers, and most of them are women. I can’t imagine why. Might it be that abortion is on the ballot in 10 states to protect women’s health care? Or that the architect of rocketing back 50+ years is on the ballot?
Let the purple tsunami roll!
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Featured image: Wikimedia Commons.
Known for gnawing at complex questions like a terrier with a bone. Digital evangelist, writer, teacher. Transplanted Southerner; teach newbies to ride motorcycles. @kegill (Twitter and Mastodon.social); wiredpen.com