U.S. Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris boards Air Force Two at John Murtha Johnstown-Cambria Airport in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, on September 13, 2024.
Drew Angerer | AFP | Getty Images
More than 700 former national security and military officials called for Kamala Harris to be chosen over Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election in an open letter published Sunday by National Security Leaders for America.
“This election is a choice between serious leadership and vindictive impulsiveness,” said the group, which is made up of senior politicians from both parties who have served in the military and other offices and agencies.
“We are trained to make sober, rational decisions. That's why we know that Vice President Harris would be an excellent commander in chief, while Mr. Trump has proven he is not up to the task,” they added.
The statement, which criticized Trump as “impulsive and ill-informed,” was signed by 741 people, including vocal Harris-supporting Democrats like Hillary Clinton and John Kerry, as well as Republican Secretaries of Defense Chuck Hagel and William Cohen. Hagel and Cohen both served under Democratic presidents.
The signatories include 15 retired four-star generals, 12 former Cabinet officials, eight service secretaries, more than 120 ambassadors and three Trump-era officials: retired U.S. Army Gen. Peter Chiarelli, former Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, retired four-star General Paul Selva and retired Major General Eric Thorne Olson.
Read more: US presidential election 2024
“Mr. Trump is the first president in American history to actively undermine the peaceful transition of power, the bedrock of American democracy,” the letter said. “He has shown no remorse for his attempt to overturn the 2020 election on January 6, promises to pardon convicted perpetrators, and has made clear that he will not respect the outcome of the 2024 election if he loses again.”
The letter also accused Trump of publicly and privately criticizing the leaders of American allies such as Britain, Israel, Australia, Canada and Germany, and of his decision to abandon allied Kurdish fighters in Syria in the face of an expected Turkish attack in 2019.
“These are the same people who have led our country into endless wars abroad and profited from them while the American people suffered,” Steven Cheung, communications director for the Trump campaign, told CNBC in response to the critical letter. “President Trump is the only president in modern times who has not led our country into new wars.”
Sunday's endorsement came after 111 former Republican security and foreign policy officials endorsed Harris in a letter on Wednesday saying Trump was “unfit to hold office again.”
Harris' campaign is trying to appeal to conservative and moderate voters who may be unsure about voting for Trump. This began in August with the formation of the “Republicans for Harris” campaign. Since then, the vice president has received support from several notable Republicans, including Dick Cheney, the former vice president under George W. Bush.
“Mr. Trump is a threat to our democratic system; he has said so himself,” the letter of recommendation said on Sunday. “He has called for the 'repeal' of parts of the Constitution. He said he wanted to be a 'dictator,' and his clarification that he would only be a dictator for one day is not exactly reassuring.”
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