Every day, the United States and our allies face threats to our safety and security. We need elected officials who understand these threats and have solutions to deal with them. What we do not need is a president who thinks that his involvement with the Miss Universe pageant in Russia is relevant foreign policy experience.
This is why I am disappointed that Sen. Kelly Ayotte has announced her support for Donald Trump for president.
Sen. Ayotte is getting in line behind a bombastic and shoot-from-the hip presidential candidate who experts from both parties agree will jeopardize our national security. Given her support of Donald Trump, one must seriously question Kelly Ayotte’s independence and her ability to effectively serve as our senator.
Sen. Ayotte claims that she supports Donald Trump for president, but oddly does not endorse him. What does that even mean? It sounds like the kind of Washington doublespeak that voters are more and more rejecting this campaign season.
I am concerned that Sen. Ayotte believes that her candidate, who casually talks about diluting our NATO alliance, questions our commitment to Israel and has “always felt fine about Putin,” is ready to serve as our commander in chief. Add to that Trump’s record of intemperate behavior and insults to anyone who disagrees with him, even the pope. I join a growing number of voices who believe he is not qualified to conduct international diplomacy and is not capable of keeping our country safe.
It is not even clear that billionaire Trump does not know what he does not know. I urge Sen. Ayotte to reconsider her support of Donald Trump.
I am not alone. National security experts from Sen. Ayotte’s own party agree that Donald Trump poses a danger to our country. Former President George W. Bush’s CIA director, Michael Hayden, has said that citizen Trump’s comments on foreign policy, and especially his view of the entire Muslim world, present “a clear and present danger. They don’t make us more safe.”
Former Mitt Romney adviser Robert Kagan has called Trump “a throwback to the 1920s and 1930s view that the world can go to hell and it’s not our problem.” And John B. Bellinger III, former State Department legal adviser under President George W. Bush, said, “Not only does (Trump) lack the national security and foreign policy qualifications to be president, he is actually endangering our national security right now by his hate-filled and divisive rhetoric.”
Even Sen. Ayotte’s close friend and ally, Sen. Lindsey Graham, has said the billionaire candidate has not “displayed the judgment and temperament to serve as commander in chief.”
The list goes on. So why does Kelly Ayotte stand in opposition to these experts? And why does she support a presidential candidate who more than 90 Republican foreign policy veterans have pledged to oppose?
Sadly, Sen. Ayotte appears more concerned with falling in line behind Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and her Republican presumed nominee for president than taking a sensible approach on national security. Likewise, her “GOP first” approach also explains why she is obstructing the Supreme Court confirmation process of President Obama’s nomination of D.C. U.S. Circuit Chief Judge Merrick Garland. This gridlock follows the failure of Kelly Ayotte’s Republican-controlled Senate to pass an Authorization for the Use of Military Force regarding military action against ISIS. This is not a credit to her as a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
We need elected officials in Washington who will stand up and protect our nation, even when that means breaking from their own party, as many Democratic senators did opposing the Vietnam War under President Lyndon Johnson.
If there is anything Maggie Hassan has demonstrated during her time as governor, it is her ability to approach problem solving on a bipartisan basis. Gov. Hassan’s work with our Republican and Democratic leaders in the state Legislature to pass Medicaid expansion and the appointment of a new Insurance commissioner from the opposite party are just two recent examples of her different approach.
This is just good government, and Gov. Hassan will make a good senator. Unfortunately, Sen. Ayotte’s growing record of supporting congressional gridlock and her willingness to put party loyalty before the interests of New Hampshire voters demonstrates poor judgment and jeopardizes national security.
It’s time for a change in Washington. Let’s elect a senator who will put New Hampshire and national security first.
(George Bruno was appointed U.S. ambassador to Belize by President Bill Clinton. He practice immigration law in Manchester.)