GOP support for Harris grows as they admit Trump is unfit

“Trump must be defeated and we must protect the Constitution,” said Wisconsin Sen. Robert Cowles of Green Bay, one of the longest-serving Republicans in the swing state.

Conservatives and independents shouldn’t pay much attention to liberals like me they fear what might happen if Donald Trump becomes the next president. We are legion, but our opinions are predictable.

No, the people to watch out for as next month’s election approaches are: Republicans fear what will happen if Trump wins. They are too large number, and growingbut more importantly, their voices are not predictable.

They are indeed extraordinary. I certainly cannot recall a time when so many senior and prominent members of a political party openly rejected their own party’s presidential candidacy. This happened and continues to happen with former President Trump happen over and over again.

Respected Republicans in two key swing states support Harris

On Thursday, influential former U.S. Republican Fred Upton of Michigan, a Republican who served in Congress for 36 yearsendorsed Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris, saying of Trump: “He is just completely unhinged. We don’t need this chaos. We have to move forward and that’s why I am where I am. “

Also Thursday, Wisconsin’s longest-serving Republican lawmakerstate Sen. Robert Cowles of Green Bay, announced, “I plan to vote for Harris.”

“Trump must be defeatedand we must protect the Constitution. And the country will continue to do so despite some liberal things that Harris may or may not do,” Cowles said. “You have to have a foundation in the Constitution to protect democracy. If you don’t have it, we will disappear.”

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These are two key GOP leaders in two key swing states who condemned Trump and endorsed Harris on the same day, less than two weeks before the election.

Let’s not forget that Trump’s former vice president won’t even endorse him

Of course, any conversation between Republicans admitting how unfit Trump is to be president should begin and end with former Vice President Mike Pence. In March, a man who served alongside the former president said he “could not in good conscience” support Trump.

Pence told Fox News: “It shouldn’t be a surprise that I won’t support Donald Trump this year.”

However, it is still a surprise that is often forgotten. Trump’s vice president believes he is unfit to be president, mainly because of the whole “attempt to overturn the election” and “I almost got Mike Pence killed” on January 6, 2021. This should be a pretty big red flag for voters.

But Pence is one of many.

The generals who served under Trump make it clear he is unfit

In the news this week, you’ve heard about Trump’s former chief of staff, retired four-star Marine Corps Gen. John Kelly, saying that Trump envied Adolf Hitler’s generals and repeatedly claimed that Hitler “did some good things”.

Kelly also said that Trump “certainly fits the general definition of fascists“

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Earlier this month, we learned in a new book by Washington Post deputy editor Bob Woodward that General Mark Milley, who served as Trump’s chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and is known as the Republican presidential nominee, has “retired.”fascist to the core“

Mark Esper, Trump’s former defense secretary, told CNN on January 6:I consider him a threat to democracydemocracy as we know it, our institutions, our political culture, everything that makes America great and defines us as, you know, the oldest democracy on the planet.”

“If you vote for Kamala Harris in 2024, you are not a Democrat. You are a patriot.

Stephanie Grisham, who was Trump’s White House press secretary, endorsed Harris and spoke at the Democratic National Convention this summer, saying: Trump “has no empathy, no morals and no loyalty to the truth.”

Longtime Republican and former Georgia Governor Geoff Duncan also spoke at the DNC and said: “Let me make it clear to my Republican friends who are watching this campaign at home: If you are voting for Kamala Harris in 2024, you are not a Democrat. You are a patriot.“

Last December, Alyssa Farah Griffin, communications director in the Trump White House, he told ABC News: “Essentially, a second Trump term could mean the end of American democracy as we know it, and I don’t say that lightly. I’m very concerned about what this term will actually look like.”

Cheney and Bush’s former attorney general? Not exactly liberals.

In September, Alberto Gonzales, former US attorney general and presidential adviser in the George W. Bush administration, – he wrote in “Polityka”.: As a critical election approaches in the United States, I cannot remain silent as Donald Trump – perhaps the most serious threat to the rule of law in a generation – plans to return to the White House. For this reason, although I am a Republican, I have decided to support Kamala Harris for president.”

They both were Vice President Dick Cheney and his daughter, former US Republican Liz CheneyConservative to the core, they condemned Trump and supported Harris.

Over 200 Republicans who previously worked for former President George W. Bush, Sen. Mitt Romney and the late Sen. John McCain, signed an open letter in August endorsing Harris over Trump.

The letter has been readin part: “We obviously have plenty of honest, ideological disagreements with Vice President Harris. … This was to be expected. But the alternative is simply unsustainable.”

There isn’t enough space to list all of the GOP endorsements for Harris

I could go on and on about Republicans who have spoken out about the threat Trump poses, but I don’t have the space or time. This fact alone should be disqualifying for Trump.

As the final days of this campaign unfold, I hope voters will see the flashing red lights and hear the warnings from liberals like me who believe a second Trump term would be disastrous.

But I hope even more that they will hear and listen to the people who served alongside Trump, the people who know him best and are from the same political party, the people who flash the same red lights and send the same loud warnings.

Fear of Trump in our wildly divided nation is a strikingly bipartisan issue. That should tell you something. I pray that it will be so.

Follow USA TODAY columnist Rex Huppke on X, formerly Twitter, @RexHuppke and Facebook facebook.com/RexIsAJerk