Hundreds of individuals who served in the administration of George W. Bush — the most recent Republican president before Trump — are set to come out in support of presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, according to Reuters. The former Bush officials “include Cabinet secretaries and other senior people in the Bush administration,” according to Reuters, and they are organizing their efforts through a new Super PAC called 43 Alumni for Biden, which is set to publicly launch this week. Super PACs are prohibited from direct coordination with campaigns, but they’re allowed to raise unlimited amounts of money to support campaigns like Biden’s from the outside.
Reuters notes that the group’s formation is “yet another sign that [Trump] has alienated some in his own party, most recently with his response to the coronavirus pandemic and nationwide protests over racial injustice and police brutality against Black Americans.” The most recent approval ratings collected by Gallup that are broken down by party indicate that 85 percent of Republicans approve of Trump’s job performance, which, while a lot, definitely isn’t the entirety of the GOP. The more defections that there are, the more likely it is that Trump will not win a second term in office.
The group 43 Alumni for Biden is preparing to release video messages in support of Biden from prominent Republicans, and they’re apparently also aiming to host get-out-the-vote campaigns in swing states.
Jennifer Millikin, who worked on Bush’s 2004 campaign and in the administration, commented:
‘We know what is normal and what is abnormal, and what we are seeing is highly abnormal. The president is a danger.’
Kristopher Purcell, who was a communications official in the Bush administration, added:
‘This November, we are choosing country over party. We believe that a Biden administration will adhere to the rule of law… and restore dignity and integrity to the White House.’
According to Bush spokesman Freddy Ford, the former president himself “won’t be wading into this election,” but that doesn’t mean that the effort hasn’t already attracted the ire of the Trump campaign. Trump campaign spokesperson Erin Perrine commented:
‘This is the swamp – yet again – trying to take down the duly elected President of the United States.’
That is a laughably ridiculous statement. No, a simple effort of supporting a rival political campaign does not constitute some conspiracy to “take down the duly elected President of the United States.” It’s called campaigning! Campaigning is not a coup attempt, just like the duly launched Russia investigation was not a coup attempt. Everything that Donald Trump personally dislikes isn’t some kind of nefarious plot against him. Many Americans just don’t like him!
As of Wednesday morning, Biden leads Trump in national polls by an average of 9.5 percent, according to RealClearPolitics. Biden also leads Trump in Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Florida, North Carolina, Arizona, and more. Many of the states where Biden leads in polling are states where Trump won in 2016, and many of them — particularly those in the so-called “Rust Belt” — were crucial to his victory. In polls, he’s losing big time.
