Why Do Top Republican Leaders & Former Trump Admin Endorse Joe Biden?

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When you’re on one side of the “political divide” and you see a lot of bad stuff about the president of the other side, it’s easy to think, “how the hell does anyone support this person?” However, it’s much harder for someone to turn on their “party leader,” especially if they have white hair and have been a dedicated member of that party for their whole adult life.

As a result, I find four things particularly interesting about this 2020 US presidential election:

  1. There are a lot of major Republican Party leaders (or former Republican Party leaders) working very hard to dethrone Donald Trump.
  2. There are actually several formerly Trump-appointed top White House officials and cabinet members who have said basically the worst things you can say about a president when commenting on Trump.
  3. Somehow, this doesn’t move the “base” of the party much, and doesn’t seem to affect even the edges of the party enough to demonstrate a total landslide victory for Biden. (Though, we’ll see about that soon.)
  4. Many people who know much more about politics, US government, and US foreign policy than me — and who would be inclined to be on the opposite side of politics from me — consider Donald Trump to be the greatest threat to the United States since the Civil War.

So, let’s dig into some of these statements first, and then further tease out why Republicans who worked for and venerated Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, Bob Dole, John McCain, George W. Bush, Mitt Romney, and even Rudy Giuliani think that Donald Trump needs to be voted out of office by a landslide and every one of his Republican enablers need to be voted out of office as well.

  • John Kelly, former Chief of Staff to Donald Trump in the White House and retired Marine general: “The depths of his dishonesty is just astounding to me. The dishonesty, the transactional nature of every relationship, though it’s more pathetic than anything else. He is the most flawed person I have ever met in my life.”
  • Steve Schmidt, senior campaign strategist and advisor for 2008 presidential campaign of Senator John McCain, who also worked on political campaigns of George W. Bush and Arnold Schwarzenegger: “Donald Trump has been the worst president this country has ever had. And I don’t say that hyperbolically. He is. But he is a consequential president. And he has brought this country in three short years to a place of weakness that is simply unimaginable if you were pondering where we are today from the day where Barack Obama left office. And there were a lot of us on that day who were deeply skeptical and very worried about what a Trump presidency would be. But this is a moment of unparalleled national humiliation, of weakness.”
  • Steve Schmidt, senior campaign strategist and advisor for 2008 presidential campaign of Senator John McCain, who also worked on political campaigns of George W. Bush and Arnold Schwarzenegger: “When you listen to the President, these are the musings of an imbecile. An idiot. And I don’t use those words to name call. I use them because they are the precise words of the English language to describe his behavior. His comportment. His actions. We’ve never seen a level of incompetence, a level of ineptitude so staggering on a daily basis by anybody in the history of the country whose ever been charged with substantial responsibilities.”
  • Steve Schmidt, senior campaign strategist and advisor for 2008 presidential campaign of Senator John McCain, who also worked on political campaigns of George W. Bush and Arnold Schwarzenegger: “It’s just astonishing that this man is president of the United States. The man, the con man, from New York City. Many bankruptcies, failed businesses, a reality show, that branded him as something that he never was. A successful businessman. Well, he’s the President of the United States now, and the man who said he would make the country great again. And he’s brought death, suffering, and economic collapse on truly an epic scale. And let’s be clear. This isn’t happening in every country around the world. This place. Our place. Our home. Our country. The United States. We are the epicenter. We are the place where you’re the most likely to die from this disease. We’re the ones with the most shattered economy. And we are because of the fool that sits in the Oval Office behind the Resolute Desk.”

  • Steve Schmidt, senior campaign strategist and advisor for 2008 presidential campaign of Senator John McCain, who also worked on political campaigns of George W. Bush and Arnold Schwarzenegger: “So the Republican party of Teddy Roosevelt and John McCain and Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush is dead. It’s over. It doesn’t exist anymore.”
  • Steve Schmidt, senior campaign strategist and advisor for 2008 presidential campaign of Senator John McCain, who also worked on political campaigns of George W. Bush and Arnold Schwarzenegger: “Trump makes no pretense about being the commander in chief of all of the country, being president of all of the people, including the people who voted against him. He is, in effect, a tribal chieftain who has declared war on half of the country.”
  • Steve Schmidt, senior campaign strategist and advisor for 2008 presidential campaign of Senator John McCain, who also worked on political campaigns of George W. Bush and Arnold Schwarzenegger: “For there to be any redemption of a right of center conservative party in the United States of America means the party of Trump must be destroyed politically.”

  • James Mattis, former Secretary of Defense to Donald Trump in the White House: “Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people — does not even pretend to try. Instead he tries to divide us. We are witnessing the consequences of three years of this deliberate effort. We are witnessing the consequences of three years without mature leadership. We can unite without him, drawing on the strengths inherent in our civil society. This will not be easy, as the past few days have shown, but we owe it to our fellow citizens; to past generations that bled to defend our promise; and to our children.”
  • James Mattis, former Secretary of Defense to Donald Trump in the White House: “When I joined the military, some 50 years ago, I swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution. Never did I dream that troops taking that same oath would be ordered under any circumstance to violate the Constitutional rights of their fellow citizens — much less to provide a bizarre photo op for the elected commander-in-chief, with military leadership standing alongside.”
  • Rex Tillerson, former Secretary of State under Donald Trump and longtime CEO of ExxonMobil: “What was challenging for me coming from the disciplined, highly process-oriented ExxonMobil corporation,” Tillerson said, was “to go to work for a man who is pretty undisciplined, doesn’t like to read, doesn’t read briefing reports, doesn’t like to get into the details of a lot of things, but rather just kind of says, ‘This is what I believe.’” Tillerson also reportedly called Trump a “f*$&ing moron” while still working as Secretary of State and never denied saying that when asked multiple times about it.
  • 20 former United States Attorneys who were appointed and served under Republican Presidents, including Dwight Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush: “First, the President has clearly conveyed that he expects his Justice Department appointees and prosecutors to serve his personal and political interests in the handling of certain cases — such as the investigations into foreign election interference and the prosecution of his political associates — and has taken action against those who have stood up for the interests of justice. He has politicized the Justice Department, dictating its priorities along political lines and breaking down the barrier that prior administrations had maintained between political and prosecutorial decision making – a barrier that has been fundamental to maintaining confidence among the American people that their Justice Department is acting as a fair and impartial arbiter of prosecutorial discretion. Finally, he has undermined the Department’s ability to unify and lead our nation’s law enforcement by picking political fights with state and local officials in a naked effort to demonize and blame them for the disturbances in our cities over the past several months. For these reasons, we believe that President Trump’s leadership is a threat to the rule of law in our country, and we do not support his reelection.”
  • 20 former United States Attorneys who were appointed and served under Republican Presidents, including Dwight Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush: “In contrast with President Trump, former Vice President Joe Biden has devoted his career to supporting law enforcement, protecting the independence of the Justice Department, and working to ensure that the federal government exercises its law enforcement powers fairly and impartially and in the interests of all Americans. And, as he has often mentioned during this turbulent time, Joe Biden understands that unity – and not division – is the key to meeting the challenges that our country is facing. Unlike the current president, Joe Biden and his Justice Department will make every effort to unite law enforcement and the nation in the pursuit of justice – to defend the rule of law, to serve and protect all Americans, and to build a criminal justice system that provides equal justice under the law.”
  • 20 former United States Attorneys who were appointed and served under Republican Presidents, including Dwight Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush: “We firmly believe that Vice President Joe Biden is the candidate who can – and will – provide the leadership we need to refocus the Justice Department on the cause of impartial justice and to address the deep-seated societal issues that are roiling our country today. We give him our strongest endorsement, and we hereby announce that we will each be voting for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris to serve as the next President and Vice President of the United States.”
  • Michael Steele, former chairman of the Republican National Committee: “What brought me over to that point was a quote by Dr [Martin Luther] King that really resonated with my heart and my head at the same time; there’s that moment where you go, yeah, this is why. Dr King said: ‘Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about the things that matter.’ I asked myself, what are the things that matter to you? It mattered that this president has openly said to us, I’m not going to accept the outcome of this election if I don’t win. It matters to me what he’s done with the Postal Service to prevent Americans from accessing the ballot box. I see this is the time for choosing, and the choice that unfortunately many in my party, particularly in the party leadership, have made is that they choose Trump. They choose winning an election at all costs over the country and I think, as an American, I should be bigger than that.”
  • Michael Steele, former chairman of the Republican National Committee: “They have to explain why they capitulated on Russia and deficit spending and allowed Donald Trump to put children in cages and they remained silent. They have to explain why a party that stood with the Statue of Liberty in the New York harbor and promoted legal immigration and promoted the ideals of this country suddenly was interested in building a wall. I can’t explain that. That goes against my values.”
  • Michael Steele, former chairman of the Republican National Committee: “I’ve been a Republican for over 40 years … since 1976, I’ll be damned if I’m going to cede that ground to Donald Trump, who is not now nor has he ever been a Republican, who is not now nor has he ever been a conservative.”
  • Michael Steele, former chairman of the Republican National Committee: “I’ve watched with great regret as Republicans have lost their voice on things that mattered and bent the arc of the party away from its founding principles and toward the whims of Donald Trump. In order to fight for the future of the GOP, it starts by defeating a president who is an anathema to the very principles that were so inviting to me as a young man. Trump’s full-throated embrace of conspiracies and white nationalism; his encroachments on our constitutional values; his efforts to undermine the integrity of our voting system and the seemingly interminable fear most Republicans have of a tweet is enough.”
  • Rick Wilson, former Republican political strategist and media consultant who worked on George H. W. Bush campaign and served in George W. Bush administration: “Donald Trump, the Münchhausen of presidents, is a notorious serial liar and fabulist. He is a man who has boasted about his own dishonesty in life, marriage, and business.”
  • Rick Wilson, former Republican political strategist and media consultant who worked on George H. W. Bush campaign and served in George W. Bush administration: “The Party of Lincoln is now the Party of Trump, a weak, cowardly, amoral, and faithless husk of a once-great party of ideas and leadership. They’ll follow him into a political graveyard, red hats, tawdry nationalism, dumb policies, cruel tweets, and all. Their cult-like obedience to him has consumed their honor, and their souls.”
  • Rick Wilson, former Republican political strategist and media consultant who worked on George H. W. Bush campaign and served in George W. Bush administration: “The promised auto, coal, steel, and manufacturing jobs aren’t just fiction; they’re a cruel lie to people who spent the last three decades in a slow, painful decline.”
  • Rick Wilson, former Republican political strategist and media consultant who worked on George H. W. Bush campaign and served in George W. Bush administration: “Donald Trump is like a monster from the laboratory of a jackass mad scientist, built to represent the perfect antithesis of Washington’s example.”
  • Rick Wilson, former Republican political strategist and media consultant who worked on George H. W. Bush campaign and served in George W. Bush administration: “Donald Trump is a terrible, horrible, no-good president. He’ll go down in history with asterisks next to his name for endemic corruption, outrageous stupidity, egregious cruelty, and inhumanity, for diminishing the presidency and the nation.”

Here are a few videos from the Lincoln Project, which was formed by top Republicans and former Republicans:

There’s also this scorching piece from William McRaven, a retired Navy admiral who was commander of the U.S. Special Operations Command from 2011 to 2014 and oversaw the Osama bin Laden raid in that role: “Trump is actively working to undermine the Postal Service — and every major U.S. institution.” Indeed.

To close, here is a chilling in-depth discussion of some of these topics by four top Republican and former Republican leaders:

And here are some much shorter, brilliant monologues from Steve Schmidt, who has a way with words that I truly envy:

Lastly, here’s Donald Trump’s niece, Mary Trump, discussing who Donald Trump is (it’s a 14 video series if you want to learn much more about Donald Trump and his family history):


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Zachary Shahan

Zach is tryin' to help society help itself one word at a time. He spends most of his time here on CleanTechnica as its director, chief editor, and CEO. Zach is recognized globally as an electric vehicle, solar energy, and energy storage expert. He has presented about cleantech at conferences in India, the UAE, Ukraine, Poland, Germany, the Netherlands, the USA, Canada, and Curaçao. Zach has long-term investments in Tesla [TSLA], NIO [NIO], Xpeng [XPEV], Ford [F], ChargePoint [CHPT], Amazon [AMZN], Piedmont Lithium [PLL], Lithium Americas [LAC], Albemarle Corporation [ALB], Nouveau Monde Graphite [NMGRF], Talon Metals [TLOFF], Arclight Clean Transition Corp [ACTC], and Starbucks [SBUX]. But he does not offer (explicitly or implicitly) investment advice of any sort.

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