Brunswick Beacon, 04.25.24
Radio City Music Hall is the world’s largest indoor theatre. On March 28, it hosted three American presidents: Joe Biden, Barack Obama, and Bill Clinton. Biden has been endorsed by every living Democratic president and vice-president including Jimmy Carter, who is receiving hospice care and couldn’t attend. Democratic unity drives home how loathed Trump is by his Republican peers.
Republicans have lost seven of the last eight popular votes for president. The only former Republican presidents alive during Trump’s presidential campaigns were the Bushes. Both refused to endorse Trump. That puts Biden up 3-0 in endorsements by former presidents.
What about vice-presidents? Biden has earned the support of every Democratic vice-president throughout his career: Walter Mondale, Al Gore, and Kamala Harris. Once again, Trump gets a goose egg.
Vice-President Dan Quayle worked to keep Trump from stealing the 2020 election. Dick Cheney is working with his daughter Liz to keep Trump from darkening the door of the Oval Office again. "In our nation's 246-year history,” says Vice-President Cheney, “there has never been an individual who is a greater threat to our Republic than Donald Trump."
Mike Pence, Trump’s own vice-president, announced he won’t support Trump, whose “reckless words endangered my family and everyone at the Capitol that day, and I know history will hold Donald Trump accountable.”
Trump is also a pariah to previous unsuccessful Republican presidential nominees. John McCain (2008) called it “impossible” to support Trump after the Access Hollywood tape became public, in which Trump admitted grabbing women by their private parts. McCain called Trump siding with Putin over American intelligence at the humiliating 2018 Helsinki summit “one of the most disgraceful performances by an American president in memory.” Mitt Romney (2012) voted to convict Trump in both impeachment trials.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) called Trump “a race-baiting, xenophobic, religious bigot. You know how you make America great again? Tell Donald Trump to go to hell.” Trump’s peers agree.
Linda Baker
Leland