Lots of stories out about former President Obama endorsing Joe Biden, Bernie endorsing Biden, Warren endorsing Biden, pretty much every Democratic candidate for the nomination has stepped up to endorse him. (Even Tulsi Gabbard did so a month ago.) So now people are asking, what about Republicans? Especially “Never Trumpers.” Well, that dam is also starting to crack. The Lincoln Project posted this op-ed in WaPo today by George Conway, Reed Galen, Steve Schmidt, John Weaver and Rick Wilson:
We’ve never backed a Democrat for president. But Trump must be defeated.
When we founded the Lincoln Project, we did so with a clear mission: to defeat President Trump in November. Publicly supporting a Democratic nominee for president is a first for all of us. We are in extraordinary times, and we have chosen to put country over party — and former vice president Joe Biden is the candidate who we believe will do the same.Biden is now the presumptive Democratic nominee and he has our support. Biden has the experience, the attributes and the character to defeat Trump this fall. Unlike Trump, for whom the presidency is just one more opportunity to perfect his narcissism and self-aggrandizement, Biden sees public service as an opportunity to do right by the American people and a privilege to do so.
The authors go on for several more paragraphs, making it clear that they’re not just endorsing Biden as the “un-Trump” — including this bit:
Biden understands a tenet of leadership that far too few leaders today grasp: The presidency is a life-and-death business, that the consequences of elections have real-world effects on individual Americans, and that all of this — all of the struggle, toil and work — is not a zero-sum game.
Earlier today, Max Boot, WaPo’s house conservative (and a decent person), put out this call: Republicans who don’t like Trump have no excuses: Endorse Biden:
It’s great to see Sanders and former president Barack Obama endorsing Biden. But it is also important for Republican elders to do so, since that will make it clear to middle-of-the-road voters (who will determine the outcome) that it’s safe to vote for a Democrat. We need to hear from the great and the good of what remains of the pre-Trump GOP.
Back in January, the Nashua (NH) Telegraph reported some Republicans were already endorsing Biden:
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden is racking up support from Republicans alienated by President Donald Trump ahead of New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation (#FITN) primary, as former U.S. Sen. Gordon Humphrey and former first lady Dorothy Peterson are endorsing Biden.
The Republican mayor of Michigan’s fourth largest city (Sterling Heights) endorsed Biden on March 10.
I haven’t seen other Republican endorsements yet, but these are enough already to have Trump making new scorch marks on the White House ceiling.
Meanwhile, on the other end of the political spectrum, AOC is moving toward endorsing Biden. She wants him toe “refine” his stances on some issues, but in the end:
Ocasio-Cortez, who had earlier backed fellow progressive U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders’ bid for the Democratic nomination, said she expected to ultimately support Biden’s bid to unseat Republican President Donald Trump.
We sometimes pan Joe Biden (as we did Obama before him) for putting too much emphasis on bipartisanship, and we will have to remind him constantly not to go too far, but if we are ever going to heal this country and start moving forward as a nation, we — Biden — will need support from all sides. Looks like he’s starting to get so me.
