'He betrayed America: Conservative judge urges Republicans to reject Trump

29 October 2024

With the United States' 2024 presidential election only a week away, Vice President Kamala Harris is enjoying a broad range of support — from self-described "democratic socialists" like Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York) to well-known GOP conservatives such as former Vice President Dick Cheney; his daughter, former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyoming); former Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Arizona); former White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham; and Alberto Gonzales, who served as U.S. attorney general under President George W. Bush.

Nonetheless, both national and battleground state polls are showing a very close race. Some Democratic insiders, according to The Hill, privately fear that Harris could — like Al Gore in 2000 and Hillary Clinton in 2016 — win the popular vote but lose the electoral vote and therefore, lose the election. And various Trump critics, including Grisham and Michael Cohen (Trump's former personal attorney and fixer), have said they have been seriously looking into other countries to move to if Trump wins and they are facing retaliation from him.

Another Harris supporter on the right is J. Michael Luttig, a retired federal judge who has been highly influential in conservative legal circles.

In an op-ed published by the New York Times on October 29, the 70-year-old Luttig stresses that Republicans need to put the U.S. Constitution before their party and oppose Trump — as the former president has repeatedly demonstrated that he does not support the rule of law.

"One week from today," Luttig explains, "we will decide whether Donald Trump is fit to be president of the United States again. He is not. When we entrusted our Constitution and our democracy with him before, he betrayed us. Campaigning for the presidency again, he now promises to exact vengeance against his fellow Americans whom he deems 'the enemy from within,' those who have dared to challenge his betrayal, an enemies list that includes Republicans and Democrats alike."

Luttig stresses that "no president before Donald Trump has ever so betrayed America."

"If Republicans are unwilling to put America before their party now," Luttig warns, "they will never do so. They must be honest with themselves. All Americans, but especially Republicans, will live with their decision the rest of their lives. This election is anything but politics as usual, no matter how desperately Donald Trump and the GOP have tried to make it that."

Harris, according to Luttig, is "the only candidate who can be trusted to honor the president's sacred obligations to America's democracy, Constitution and rule of law."

"Through his words and deeds," Luttig writes, "Donald Trump has over and again demonstrated his palpable contempt for those cornerstones of America's grand experiment in democratic self-government. He has proved himself to be an anti-democratic, anti-Constitution candidate for the presidency of the United States…. The choice for America next Tuesday could not be clearer."

J. Michael Luttig's full New York Times op-ed is available at this link (subscription required).

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