from Reuters:

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-biden-republicans/former-republican-cia-fbi-heads-and-national-security-officials-to-back-biden-idUSKBN25G2C5

============

Former Republican CIA, FBI heads and national security officials to
back Biden


LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Over 70 former Republican national security
officials including ex-CIA and FBI chiefs will endorse Democratic
presidential candidate Joe Biden on Friday while launching a scathing
indictment of President Donald Trump, calling him corrupt and unfit to
serve.

The group, called Former Republican National Security Officials for
Biden, includes some of the most senior Republican members of the U.S.
defense and intelligence establishment to have served in the
administrations of Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush and
Trump.

The 73-strong group includes retired General Michael Hayden, who
served as national security director and head of the CIA; William
Webster, the only man to serve as both head of the CIA and FBI; John
Negroponte, the first director of National Intelligence; Michael
Leiter, former director of the National Counterterrorism Center; and
Mike Donley, former Air Force secretary.

Their full-throated condemnation of Trump and backing of Biden will
come three days before Trump’s nominating convention opens on Monday
and underscores how the Republican president has alienated some
members of his own party, especially among intelligence and foreign
policy veterans.

“Trump has demonstrated that he lacks the character and competence to
lead this nation and has engaged in corrupt behavior that renders him
unfit to serve as president,” the group plans to declare in a
full-page ad in The Wall Street Journal on Friday.

“We have concluded that Donald Trump has failed our country and that
Vice President Joe Biden should be elected the next President of the
United States,” it adds.

The group is one of a number of Republican organizations opposing
Trump’s re-election in the Nov. 3 election.

Collectively, they object to his alienation of U.S. allies abroad and
his leadership at home, most recently his response to the coronavirus
pandemic, which has killed more than 170,000 Americans and triggered a
severe economic downturn, as well as his reaction to nationwide
protests over racial injustice and police brutality against Black
Americans.

The Trump campaign has described Republican-led groups campaigning for
Biden, such as Republican Voters Against Trump and 43 Alumni for Biden
- hundreds of officials who worked for George W. Bush - as “the
swamp,” disaffected former officials “trying to take down the duly
elected President of the United States.”

Trump himself has expressed contempt, saying on Twitter last year that
such “Never Trump Republicans” are “human scum.”


Bob Tuttle, who was director of personnel under Reagan and ambassador
to the UK under George W. Bush, is a member of the national security
group and said Trump’s handling of the coronavirus crisis had been
“abominable.”

“He’s a malignant narcissist. He’s a liar. He’s a despicable human
being and the worst president in American history - it’s not even
close,” Tuttle told Reuters.

Another group member, James Glassman, an undersecretary of state in
the George W. Bush administration, said Trump had created “global
chaos.”


“Lack of leadership has led to the deaths of 170,000 Americans,”
Glassman said. “There’s no excuse in the country with the best health
scientists in the world.”

The group lays out a detailed charge sheet against Trump, including
accusations that he is unfit to lead in a national crisis, undermined
confidence in U.S. elections, aligned himself with dictators, preached
a “dark and pessimistic view of America” and attacked and vilified
immigrants.

The national security group will launch a website on Friday and come
under the umbrella of another anti-Trump organization run by
Republicans, Defending Democracy Together. The former national
security officials raised $140,000 among themselves to launch their
effort.

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