Republican mayor supports Kamala Harris

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   IslandBitesposted 7 weeks ago

   Why, as a Republican mayor, I support Kamala Harris over Trump
   
   The time has come for my fellow Arizona Republicans to return to the core foundations of the Grand Old Party.
   
   Our party used to stand for the belief that every Arizonan, no matter their background or circumstances, should have the freedom, opportunity and security to live out their American Dream. 
   
   But since Donald Trump refused to accept the outcome of the 2020 election, Republicans have yet to course correct. The Republican Party with Trump at its helm continues down the path of political extremism, away from focusing on our fundamental freedoms.
   
   Now more than ever, we need leaders who will put country over party...
   
   Trump did not support Arizona cities
   
   In Arizona, we have faced the brunt of misinformation, election denialism and an erosion of trust in our justice system.
   
   Significant reforms to immigration and border policies that would have addressed the crisis at our southern border were blocked by Trump because he didn’t want the problem solved. He wanted to exploit it for personal political gain.
   
   Since 2014, I have had the honor of being mayor of Mesa, the nation’s 36th-largest city and one of the most conservative. Under Trump, American cities didn’t get the support they deserved. Infrastructure week was made into a joke.
   
   But under the Biden-Harris administration, Mesa has seen historic federal funding for the Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport, along with investments to make sure our streets and public transit systems benefit from modern technology.
   
   With the CHIPS Act, Vice President Kamala Harris and President Joe Biden are delivering thousands of new jobs to Arizonans and helping us grow critical industries.
   
   Harris is the competent leader we need
   
   Trump poses a serious threat to our nation. We can’t have a felon representing us on the national stage, let alone one who would threaten to abandon NATO and ruin our standing abroad...
   
   What kind of country do we want to live in?
   
   Vice President Harris is fighting to make sure Americans can get ahead and be safe from gun violence and to restore and protect the rights of women. Donald Trump, on the other hand, could enact the extreme and dangerous Project 2025 agenda if elected, which would roll back our rights and freedoms...
   
   That’s why I’m standing with her. Kamala Harris is the competent, just and fair leader our country deserves. This year too much is at stake to vote Republican at the top of the ticket.
   
   It will take Arizona Republicans, independents and Democrats standing together against a far-right agenda. Let us put country over party by voting to stop Trump and protect our democracy.
   
   Republican John Giles, mayor of Mesa.
   (For the complete OP ED, click the link.)
   
   Thoughts? Are we going to see more of this? Would it have any effect? Would he be booted from the   ̶G̶O̶P̶   TOP?

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   IslandBitesposted 7 weeks ago

   https://azcapitoltimes.com/news/2024/07 … ing-lives/
   
   Historic federal investments are saving, transforming lives
   
   By John Giles, Mayor of Mesa

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   IslandBitesposted 6 weeks ago

   Former GOP rep endorses Harris, says Trump ‘would endanger US citizens’
   
   Former Rep. Denver Riggleman (R-Va.) endorsed Vice President Harris’s bid for president on Sunday and warned sending former President Trump back to the White House “would endanger US citizens—and create global chaos.”
   
   Riggleman’s name was among the high-profile list of endorsements that the Harris campaign revealed alongside its launch of the “Republicans for Harris” initiative.
   
   “I’ve seen the data from J6. Trump & his minions are dangerous. The same folks who pushed J6 push Project 2025,” Riggleman said. “A 2nd Trump term would endanger US citizens— and create global chaos.”
   
   “Sanity should be the baseline. Criminals should be discounted,” he added, before tagging the Republicans for Harris X account.
   
   Harris’s campaign launched the initiative with more than 25 endorsements from high-profile Republicans, including former Defense Sec. Chuck Hagel and former Transportation Sec. Ray LaHood and other GOP lawmakers and governors.
   
   Trump-era White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham and Olivia Troye, ex-national security adviser to former Vice President Mike Pence, also endorsed Harris.
   
   Former Reps. Christopher Shays (R-Conn.), Joe Walsh (R-Ill.), Susan Molinari (R-N.Y.) and Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) were also listed among the endorsements.
   
   https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4 … -citizens/

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      wildernessposted 6 weeks agoin reply to this

      With the intense partisanship in our government today I'd say the man either expects to die soon (unreported cancer?) or wishes to retire soon.

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         IslandBitesposted 6 weeks agoin reply to this

         They are brave, that's for sure.

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            Ken Burgessposted 6 weeks agoin reply to this

            There are many politicians, professors and powerful billionaires that will be behind Harris and the continuation of the current Administration.
            
            Republicans supporting Harris over Trump should not be noteworthy, there were plenty who supported Hillary as well.
            
            What the 'Party' is today, and what its goals are, is there for people who want to do the research to see.
            
            For the 'low information' voters... they will stick to labeling Trump a racist, sexist, threat to Democracy who is up against the victimized Black Woman who is the hope for a better tomorrow.
            
            It will work, they only need to convince close to half the country that Harris is the better way to go. The country is divided along those lines, no need to worry about it. 
            
            They couldn't have pulled it off with Biden, but the majority will not hold Harris accountable for the disaster that the Biden Administration has been.

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   IslandBitesposted 5 weeks ago

   Georgia Republican urges more GOP support for Harris: ‘Reclaim this country’s future’
   
   Former Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan (R) pushed for more Republicans to support Vice President Harris, arguing in a Tuesday interview that it was perfectly acceptable for those in the GOP to back her even though she’s a Democrat.
   
   “I think it’s important to reinforce the fact to Republicans around the country that just because you vote for Kamala Harris in 2024, doesn’t mean you’re Democrat. It just means you’re a patriot,” Duncan continued. “You’re doing your duty as an American to step up to the plate and reclaim this country’s future.”
   
   “There’s some lifelong Republicans like me that are extremely conservative, but just have seen Donald Trump act in ways that should never be rewarded with another job called ‘president,’ and some folks that are just moderates and everything in between,” Duncan added.

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   Miebakagh57posted 5 weeks ago

   Patrotism is an important civic lessen. It's love for once own country.                                            And during a political engineering campaign such as this forth coming November election, putting the country above party lines, and likewise the aspireing characters also is a MUST.                                      Seriously, its no puzzle that a Rep is voting for a Dem. A Dem is also voting for Rep.                                               Sure, across all the party lines, everyone should vote for what it takes to realized the country's dream.                                       Critically, the dream is a hard question. It differs. So Trump creat his 20 points. Harris has her's. Which is in tandem with what the American country need most? That's the picture.

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      Kathryn L Hillposted 5 weeks agoin reply to this

      Q. "Which is in tandem with what the American country needs most?"
      
      A. Enabling the pursuit of self-interest. Not making it impossible to follow individual hopes, dreams, goals and ambitions.
      
      Opportunity for all through the following the Constitution of the United States.

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         Miebakagh57posted 5 weeks agoin reply to this

         The 2nd paragraphy answer the question, not the 1st parag.

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            Kathryn L Hillposted 5 weeks agoin reply to this

            "The 2nd sentence answers the question, not the 1st sentence."
            Mr. M.
            
            The two sentences are actually one idea.
            
            Enabling the pursuit of self-interest. Making it possible to follow one's hopes, dreams, goals and ambitions = Making it (the ability to follow one's will toward one's own good,) possible through liberty and an environment rich in opportunities, (for all, equally.)

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   Kathleen Cochranposted 4 weeks ago

   Yes. We are going to see a lot more of this.
   
   Americans are basically good at their core. Abortion. Hating Hillary Clinton. Manipulating the Supreme Court. All those nothing-else-matters, the-ends-justify-the-means reasons for not even considering voting for a Democrat - are over. You got Roe v Wade overturned. Hillary is not running for anything. And the fix is in on the Supreme Court. Now you have to vote on your own sense of right and wrong. And many Republicans have made all the excuses for Trump that they can stomach.

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   IslandBitesposted 4 weeks ago

   Conservative former Judge J. Michael Luttig endorses Harris
   
   Retired federal judge J. Michael Luttig — a longtime conservative jurist — on Monday endorsed Vice President Harris’s bid for president.
   
   “In the presidential election of 2024 there is only one political party and one candidate for the presidency that can claim the mantle of defender and protector of America’s Democracy, the Constitution, and the Rule of Law,” Luttig wrote in a statement.  "As a result, I will unhesitatingly vote for the Democratic Party’s candidate for the Presidency of the United States, Vice President of the United States, Kamala Harris.”
   
   In breaking with his decades-long GOP voting pattern, Luttig said he is prioritizing the safeguarding of democracy over any other policy issue. It will be the first time Luttig, a veteran of two Republican administrations, has voted for a Democrat.
   
   “In voting for Vice President Harris, I assume that her public policy views are vastly different from my own, but I am indifferent in this election as to her policy views on any issues other than America’s Democracy, the Constitution, and the Rule of Law, as I believe all Americans should be,” he said.
   
   Luttig said members of his party “have chosen as their standard bearer the one man who is singularly unfit to embody and represent not only to the Nation, but to the world, America’s sacred Democracy, Constitution, and Rule of Law.”
   
   In his statement Monday, Luttig criticized political pundits and “opportunists” who try to convince the American public that “the only thing that matters in this presidential election is the candidates’ different positions on the sundry policies of the day.”
   
   “All, as if nothing had come before,” he continued. “We Americans know all too well what has come before. We understand what the political class does not want us to understand. That in the presidential election of 2024, the candidates’ policy differences are the least that matters to the United States of America.”

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   IslandBitesposted 3 weeks ago

   More than 200 former Republican presidential staffers sign open letter endorsing Harris over Trump
   
   In an open letter, first written about on Monday by USA Today, 238 people who worked for former President George H.W. Bush, former President George W. Bush, former Arizona Sen. John McCain and Utah Sen. Mitt Romney call on their fellow “moderate Republicans and conservative independents” to join them in backing Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, over Trump and his vice presidential pick, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio.
   
   “Of course, we have plenty of honest, ideological disagreements with Vice President Harris and Gov. Walz,” the Republicans wrote. “That’s to be expected. The alternative, however, is simply untenable.”
   
   “Another four years of Donald Trump’s chaotic leadership,” the signatories warn, “this time focused on advancing the dangerous goals of Project 2025, will hurt real, everyday people and weaken our sacred institutions.” The letter goes on to warn that “broad, democratic movements will be irreparably jeopardized as Trump and his acolyte JD Vance kowtow to dictators like Vladimir Putin while turning their backs on our allies.”

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   Miebakagh57posted 3 weeks ago

   That's not a challenge. Americans are free to choice their presidents.

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    IslandBitesposted 3 weeks ago

    Joe Walsh, former Tea Party Republican Congressman
    Interview at the DNC
    
    Video
    
    Ouch

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    IslandBitesposted 13 days ago

    Dick Cheney will vote for Kamala Harris, says Liz Cheney
    
    Ex-Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) said Friday her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, will cast his ballot this year in favor of Vice President Harris.
    
    “Dick Cheney will be voting for Kamala Harris,” Cheney told The Atlantic’s Mark Leibovich at the Texas Tribune Festival.
    
    Cheney added her father “believes, and he’s said publicly, that there’s never been an individual in our country who is as grave a threat to our democracy as Donald Trump is.”
    
    Cheney’s comments follow her announcement earlier this week that she is also going to vote for Harris over former President Trump, despite being a lifelong conservative.
    
    Liz Cheney, who has been among Trump’s biggest critics in the Republican party, revealed her support for Harris during an event at Duke University on Wednesday, saying that people in swing states this year don’t have the “luxury” of writing in candidates.
    
    She added, “as a conservative, as someone who believes in and cares about the Constitution, I have thought deeply about this, and because of the danger that Donald Trump poses, not only am I not voting for Donald Trump but I will be voting for Kamala Harris.”

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    IslandBitesposted 8 days ago

    Republican AG Alberto Gonzales backs Harris, warns against Trump
    
    Former George W. Bush administration Attorney General Alberto Gonzales endorsed Vice President Harris Thursday, citing in part the Supreme Court’s immunity decision in calling former President Trump “perhaps the most serious threat to the rule of law in a generation.”
    
    Gonzales, who also served as White House counsel, wrote in an op-ed in Politico that “the character of the person we elect in November is particularly important today” due to the court’s decision as well as a Congress “spectacularly incapable or unwilling to check abuses of executive power.”
    
    “Standing alone, these charges, convictions and judgments show that Trump is someone who fails to act, time and time again, in accordance with the rule of law. There is little evidence that he has the integrity and character to responsibly wield the power of the presidency within the limits of the law,” he wrote.
    
    “And no amount of rationalization to support Trump because of his policies can overcome the disqualification of this man based on his lack of integrity.”
    
    “It is the president’s integrity, honesty and respect for our institutions that may be the most important and reliable check on abuses of power,” Gonzales wrote.
    
    “Power is intoxicating and based on Trump’s rhetoric and conduct it appears unlikely that he would respect the power of the presidency in all instances; rather, he would abuse it for personal and political gain, and not on behalf of the American people.”
    
    “He failed to deploy executive branch personnel to save lives and property and preserve democracy. He just watched on television and chose not to do anything because that would have been contrary to his interests. Trump still describes that day as beautiful,” he wrote.
    
    “And as for those subsequently convicted of committing crimes, he describes them as hostages. He also has promised to pardon the convicted rioters if elected. Why? Because they were acting in his interests.”
    
    “Casting a vote for Harris will require the American people to place their faith in her character and judgment. Some may see her as too progressive and worry she would be too easily manipulated. There is little mystery or doubt, however, about how Trump will act and govern based on past behavior and comments,” Gonzales wrote.
    
    “He will help those who help him and his family for personal or financial reasons. He will likely pull back from our leadership role among other democracies in the fight against authoritarianism. Based on spending levels during Trump’s first term, his policies will likely increase the national debt.”

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