Staff of last three Republican nominees for president unite to defeat Donald Trump

It was 15 years ago this week that Hurricane Katrina was devastating Louisiana. When the levees broke in New Orleans, residents were trapped in their homes as the waters quickly rose. Many drowned. Over 1,200 residents died.

On August 29, 2005, just as Hurricane Katrina was inundating New Orleans and much more of a 3-state area of the American South, President George W. Bush was in Arizona celebrating Senator John McCain’s 69th birthday with a large cake.

President Bush then took off for Crawford, Texas and his annual Labor Day respite. En route back to Washington, D.C. a few days later, Bush asked the Air Force One crew to fly him over New Orleans so he could view the damage from 30,000 feet.

President Bush’s spectacularly indifferent response to Hurricane Katrina is often credited as the inflection point in his failed presidency.

John McCain’s Miserable Record on Hurricane Katrina as well haunted him 3 years later as the GOP nominee for president in 2008.

I see in the Arizona Republic today that another Arizona politician with fantasies of running for president, Governor Doug Ducey, is flying to Washington D.C. today to attend Donald Trump’s acceptance speech in person as Hurricane Laura is pounding Louisiana. Gov. Doug Ducey a guest of Trump’s for Republican National Convention acceptance speech.

“History Doesn’t Repeat Itself, but It Often Rhymes” – Mark Twain.

There was scant mention of the brewing crisis at the Republican convention Wednesday night as Hurricane Laura was bearing down on Louisiana. The first two nights of the Republican National Convention included virtually no reference to the hurricane gaining strength in the Gulf of Mexico.

“The potentially catastrophic Category 4 hurricane will likely test the administration’s emergency response capabilities.”

Let’s hope it is not as disastrously incompetent as its response to Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico, where over 3,000 American citizens died.

Gov. Ducey would be well advised to recall John McCain’s sage advice: “Arizona may be the only state in America where mothers don’t tell their children that some day they can grow up and be President of the United States.”

But I digress.

The Arizona Republic’s E.J. Montini, who apparently maintains a shrine to “saint” John McCain based upon his effusive commentary in praise of McCain even two years after his death, will be thrilled to learn that Over 100 Ex-Staff Members for John McCain Endorse Joe Biden:

More than 100 former staff members for Senator John McCain are supporting Joseph R. Biden Jr., a show of support across the political divide that they hope amplifies the “Country First” credo of the former Arizona senator.

That motto and “his frequent call on Americans to serve causes greater than our self-interest were not empty slogans like so much of our politics today,” the group of aides, most of them still Republicans, wrote in a joint statement [posted on Medium by “McCain Alums for Joe Biden”], praising Mr. McCain and implicitly taking aim at President Trump. “They were the creed by which he lived, and he urged us to do the same.”

The list of signatories includes a range of people — from chiefs of staff in Mr. McCain’s Senate office to junior aides on his campaigns — who worked for him over his 35 years in Congress and during two presidential bids.

Mark Salter, Mr. McCain’s longtime chief aide and speechwriter, helped organize the letter.

“We have different views of Joe Biden and the Democratic Party platform — most of us will disagree with a fair amount of it — but we all agree that getting Donald Trump out of office is clearly in the national interest,” Mr. Salter said.

In an op-ed at the Washington Post, Mark Salter writes, Why dozens of John McCain aides, including me, are endorsing Joe Biden:

This week, I joined more than 100 aides of the late Sen. John McCain, including former chiefs of staff, senior legislative and campaign workers and some of the senator’s longest-serving staff to endorse John’s friend and colleague, former vice president Joe Biden, for president. We did not do so lightly, but we have no reservations about our decision. We are convinced that Biden’s election is in the national interest.

Many of us have been Republicans all our adult lives. Some of us no longer identify as such, but most of us still do. We might have concerns about the recent direction of the Republican Party, and we have varying opinions about how to restore the primacy of the values that attracted us to the party in the first place. But we still believe in those values, and we want them restored to the party of Lincoln and McCain. We do not believe that will happen while Donald Trump is president. And whatever differences of opinion we have, we are united by one urgent purpose: to prevent his reelection.

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We try hard to listen for his voice in all important political debates. We can’t claim John’s endorsement of our decision. But he trusted us to recognize a choice between party and country, and to do what we know is right. We believe electing Biden is not just the right course for the nation but imperative if we are to have any hope of overcoming the grave problems that currently trouble us.

President Trump’s inept leadership of the federal government’s response to the covid-19 pandemic has cost many more lives than it should have. 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. His disinterest in American values, his tolerance for despots and his hostility to allies leave us uniquely vulnerable while our adversaries take every advantage of absent American leadership. Last, 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.

Many of us have reservations about some of the views expressed by Biden, by his running mate, Sen. Kamala D. Harris, and by the Democratic Party’s platform. Should the Democratic ticket win the election, we expect to oppose some of the policies their administration pursues.

We are, however, encouraged by Biden’s long history of seeking bipartisan solutions to serious national problems. We are confident he will fulfill his promise to be a president for all Americans and act in what he believes are the best interests of us all. We believe he will seek to temper the political polarization that impairs our government, not aggravate it, and try to repair the divisions besetting our society, be they racial, economic or political, not intentionally worsen them. We trust that as president, Biden will take seriously the federal government’s primary role in addressing the worst public health crisis in a century, and not shift his responsibilities or the blame for his failures to others. And while some of us might find fault with the foreign and defense policies a Biden administration would implement, we are confident that a President Biden would endeavor to act in accord with U.S. interests and ideals, and confront rather than acquiesce to threats to them — a confidence we do not have in the incumbent president.

For those and other reasons, we believe we are acting in accord with John McCain’s charge to put “country first” when we urge Americans to elect former vice president Biden and Sen. Harris the next president and vice president of the United States.

But wait, there’s more!

POLITICO reports, Bush, McCain and Romney presidential staffers unite behind effort to elect Joe Biden:

Several dozen former staffers from Sen. Mitt Romney’s (R-Utah) presidential campaign, the George W. Bush administration and the campaign and Senate staff of former Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) have signed on to an effort to elect Joe Biden. For the Romney and McCain staffers, they’re working to elect the same man they tried to defeat in 2012 and 2008, respectively.

The latest initiative launched by Republicans eager to unseat their party’s incumbent president comes at a moment of division for the GOP. While many in the party have been steadfast in their support of President Donald Trump, vocal pockets of establishment Republicans have worked to defeat him. Those Republicans, in turn, have largely been met with contempt from the president and his base.

Romney in particular has become a staple punching bag at Trump campaign events after he voted earlier this year to convict the president on an article of impeachment. And Trump’s feuds with McCain and the entire Bush family are long-running and well-documented.

In an open letter published online, the group “Romney Alumni for Biden” says Trump’s rhetoric and actions are antithetical to the Republican Party they believe in.

“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,” the group writes in the letter, published on Romney4Biden.com and released on the day Trump is due to deliver his keynote convention address. “We can’t sit by and allow that to happen.”

The 34 total signatories include finance, operations, policy and events staffers from Romney’s presidential bid.

POLITICO also received in advance a letter from Bush alumni supporting Biden [“43 Alumni For Biden”], whose signatories include former Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez, Bush domestic policy adviser Sally Canfield, former Ambassador James Glassman and former U.S. Treasurer Rosario Marin. The group praised Biden’s decency and ability to work across party lines and launched a website raising money for the Delaware Democrat.

“Joe Biden has proven himself over years of public service. We have seen him respectfully reach across the aisle, consider a different point of view and make a thoughtful decision to benefit the nation,” the group’s letter said.

Note: Senator Mitt Romney is not affiliated with his former staffers’ pro-Biden letter.

The effort is led by Micah Spangler, who served as a Florida field director for Romney’s unsuccessful bid for the presidency. A lifelong Republican, Spangler said his disgust at Trump’s takeover of the GOP compelled him to gather support for Biden.

“We know him to be a good man and honest man, and a reliable executive, legislator and policymaker. This is a time in our country where we desperately need someone like that,” Spangler said of Biden. “We need an adult in the room.”

The letter tips Biden to combat the coronavirus pandemic due to his decades of public service and a perceived ability to unite the nation. But above all, the letter praises Biden’s character over his policy chops — a theme of the opening night of the Democratic National Convention.

“Spending time with Sen. Romney on the campaign trail, from small town stops to massive rallies, in minivans and mega buses, we saw a thoughtful and compassionate man rooted in humility, service, and devotion to his family and fellow citizens,” the letter reads. “We know Mitt and Joe share those same essential, presidential traits—traits that make Vice President Biden the clear choice to lead the United States through this perilous, uncertain time.”

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Mike Sistak, Romney’s 2012 Michigan field director and another signatory, said the burgeoning numbers of anti-Trump Republican groups fills him with hope for the GOP’s future.

The belief that the party is not beyond saving is key to the Romney Alumni for Biden letter — even in the face of the president’s near-total support from elected officials at the national level and his devoted base.

“If the party suffers a huge overwhelming defeat in November, I think you’re going to see people shifting back to the center and realizing that the Trump experiment didn’t work,” Sistak said.

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The signatories acknowledge MAGA attacks will come, but Spangler rejected the idea that the initiative is led by out-of-touch elites.

“These are regular, real voters,” Spangler said. “Despite perhaps putting a scarlet ‘R’ for ‘RINO’ on your chest, to make a statement like this shows how dedicated they are and how they really don’t care about those sort of labels.”

Brittany Ladd, Ann Romney’s advance director in 2012, signed the letter and said the group is composed of Republicans who believe Romney and the late Sen. John McCain better represent her party.

“It might be a quiet minority, but we are very passionate and feel very strongly about where we want this country to go,” Ladd said. “And it’s not easy, especially in this environment, to come out and support a member of the opposite party.”

Donald Trump has managed to unite the Republican Party and Democratic Party against Trumpism, the new American fascism. Trumpism must be repudiated and discarded on the ash heap of history. As Joe Biden says, this is “a battle for the soul of America.”