US Election 2020: Bush, McCain and Romney aides back BIDEN

Scores of Republicans who worked for the party’s last pre-Trump presidential nominees – Mitt Romney, John McCain and George W. Bush – are backing Democrat Joe Biden. 

They’ve been putting out shows of support this week in the run-up to President Donald Trump formally accepting Republican renomination, which he’ll do Thursday night from the White House at the conclusion of the virtual Republican National Convention.   

‘What unites us now is a deep conviction that four more years of a Trump presidency will morally bankrupt this country, irreparably damage our democracy, and permanently transform the Republican Party into a toxic personality cult,’ wrote members of the group Romney4Biden in a statement released Thursday.   

The 30-plus Romney alumni were joined by more than 100 ex-staffers of McCain and more than 200 former Bush aides all to back Biden. 

The McCain-for-Biden effort was led by Mark Salter, a prominent author and speechwriter who also served as McCain’s chief of staff. 

In The Washington Post Thursday, Salter wrote how McCain’s ‘Country First’ mantra guided the late senator’s ex-aides to endorse Biden, who they believe will act in a bipartisan way to solve big problems. 

‘We are convinced that Biden’s election is in the national interest,’ Salter wrote. 

He said the group was against Trump because of the president’s ‘inept leadership’ in dealing with the coronavirus pandemic and his ‘disinterest in American values,’ pointing out the president’s ‘tolerance for despots and his hostility to allies.’ 

‘His divisive rhetoric and enmity toward those he perceives as adversaries have exacerbated political and social divisions at a time when Americans should be uniting to confront the serious challenges that threaten all of us,’ Salter said. 

Salter added that ‘it has become increasingly clear that Trump’s personal qualities – his lack of self-control, his chronic dishonesty, his inattention to his duties and his self-obsession – render him temperamentally unfit for the White House.’ 

While an endorsement and an opinion piece in The Washington Post may not do much to move the dial, an allied group, Republican Voters Against Trump, is using the McCain brand to make a play for Arizona. 

An ad, ‘Country First,’ launched Thursday and showcases the difference in tone between McCain and Trump. 

The New York Times reported that the group will air the spot on television in Arizona, which Democrats believe they might be able to turn blue for the first time since 1996. 

There’s also an important Senate race in the state with Republican incumbent Sen. Martha McSally being challenged by Democrat Mark Kelly, an astronaut and the husband of former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who survived the 2011 Tucson shooting. 

The group 43 Alumni for Biden also put out a statement Thursday hitting Trump for his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, but also for his cruelty. 

‘As a nation, we have lost our moral compass. Children should never be separated from their parents and caged for seeking asylum in the U.S. It is cruel and inhumane,’ said the letter, first reported by Politico.  

The group said that the ‘onslaught of insults and vulgarity’ needed to stop. 

‘Our children are watching us,’ the letter said. ‘If we explain away misogyny and racism as political tactics we are complicit in normalizing completely inappropriate behavior. This is not who we are as a nation.’ 

The Bush alumni noted that while Americans want a successful country, they questeioned how that was possible ‘if what we see modeled from the White House is disrespect and outright hate.’  

‘Joe’s kindness is sorely needed right now,’ the group argued. ‘He famously treats the train operator with the same dignity as his fellow senators.’   

Earlier this week, a spokesman for Bush said the ex-president wouldn’t be endorsing in this year’s presidential election and, so far, Romney hasn’t crossed the aisle to back Biden, despite being in Trump’s doghouse for months over his pro-impeachment vote. 

Cindy McCain, the widow of the late senator and presidential hopeful, narrated a video at last week’s Democratic National Convention about her late husband’s friendship with Biden, but she didn’t appear at the virtual DNC to make an official endorsement.