Donald Trump

DNYUZ  - More than 100 former national security officials from Republican administrations and former Republican members of Congress endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday after concluding that their party’s nominee, Donald J. Trump, is “unfit to serve again as president.”

In a letter to the public, the Republicans, including both vocal longtime Trump opponents and others who had not endorsed Joseph R. Biden Jr. in 2020, argued that while they might “disagree with Kamala Harris” on many issues, Mr. Trump had demonstrated “dangerous qualities.” Those include, they said, “unusual affinity” for dictators like President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and “contempt for the norms of decent, ethical and lawful behavior.”

 

SOME TRUMP PALS

 

Jon Richards

Robert Reich - The most significant cause of the upsurge in political violence — including the two attempts on Trump’s life — is Trump himself (along with his allies, such as Elon Musk).  Trump has a proclivity for violence. It was evident when he incited his followers to attack the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. It was evident when he encouraged supporters to beat up hecklers; when he mocked the near-fatal attack on the husband of the Democratic House speaker; when he suggested that a general he deemed disloyal be executed; and when he threatened to shoot looters and undocumented migrants.

Trump has never taken any responsibility for the consequences of his incendiary language. He still insists he was not responsible for the attack on the Capitol, although he had stirred up the mob immediately preceding the attack and knew they were carrying dangerous weapons. Since the attack, he has even suggested the mob might have been correct in wanting to hang his vice president and described the attackers as “patriots” whom he will pardon if reelected.

Last week, his baseless allegations that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, were eating people’s pets generated bomb threats that caused schools and government offices there to be shuttered. On Monday, after 33 such bomb threats, Ohio’s governor said that law enforcement would conduct daily sweeps of schools in the town.

When Trump was asked if he denounced the bomb threats, he said, “I don’t know what happened with the bomb threats” and repeated the lie that Springfield had been “taken over by illegal migrants, and that’s a terrible thing that happened.” Haitian immigrants are in Springfield legally.