A bipartisan group of 489 former national security officials have endorsed Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden.
The group, National Security Leaders for Biden wrote in a letter: “The next president will inherit a nation – and a world – in turmoil. The current President has demonstrated he is not equal to the enormous responsibilities of his office; he cannot rise to meet challenges large or small. Thanks to his disdainful attitude and his failures, our allies no longer trust or respect us, and our enemies no longer fear us.”
Among the names signing Thursday’s letter are 22 retired four-star generals and other high ranking Republicans including Paul Selva, the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under Trump; Sean O’Keefe, a former Navy secretary for President George H.W. Bush; Richard Armitage, deputy secretary of state for President George W. Bush.
They say Trump has allowed climate change and North Korea’s nuclear program to continue unabated.
“We believe that Joe Biden is, above all, a good man with a strong sense of right and wrong”, they write. “Over his long career, he has learned hard lessons and grown as a leader who can take positive action to unite and heal our country. It is unthinkable that he would ever utter the phrase “I don’t take responsibility at all.”
Trump has also “ceded influence to a Russian adversary who puts bounties on the heads of American military personnel.” Referring to reports that Trump ignored intel on the bounty placed on US troops in Afghanistan by Russia.
The group’s endorsement comes after The Atlantic reports that Trump privately disparaged fallen U.S. military personnel, caling them “losers” and declined to visit the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery during a trip to France in 2018 because he did not think it was important.
