Disaffected Republicans Pledge Support to Harris at Historic Washington Crossing
Just moments before sitting down with Fox News anchor Bret Baier for a high-profile interview, Vice President Kamala Harris Wednesday gave a speech at an iconic Bucks County landmark, Washington Crossing Historic Park, joined by some 100 Republican leaders.
Several hundred people came to see Harris speak. However, they made their way through roads festooned with Trump-Vance campaign signs in purple Bucks County, which now has 3,590 more registered Republican voters than Democrats, according to voter registration guru Scott Presler.
Reading from a teleprompter, Harris spoke about standing where General George Washington led his troops across the Delaware River and marched into Trenton on Dec. 26, 1776, surprising Hessian soldiers, a move that helped turn the tide in the Revolutionary War. Afterward, delegates wrote and signed the Constitution in nearby Philadelphia, she noted.
“At stake in this race are the democratic ideals that our Founders and generations have fought for. At stake is the Constitution itself. We are here today because we all share a core belief that we must put country before party.
“We all have so much more in common than what separates us,” she said.
But she soon turned from statesman-like remarks to attacking her opponent.
Harris said she’s “never wavered from upholding that oath.”
“And that is the profound difference between Donald Trump and me,” she said. “He who violated the oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States, and make no mistake, he who is given the chance will violate it again. Donald Trump lost the 2020 election, and he refused to accept the will of the people in a free and fair election. He sent a mob, an armed mob, to the United States Capitol, where they violently assaulted police officers law enforcement officials and threatened the life of his own vice president. And he refused to engage in the peaceful transfer of power.
Harris also claimed Trump, who survived an assassination attempt, has threatened to turn the military against Americans who he called “the enemy within.”
She promised to “make life better for you” as opposed to Trump, “who I can guarantee will sit in the Oval Office, plotting retribution, stew in his own grievances, and think only about his own self and not about you.”
Former Republican Congressman Jim Greenwood said he’s also represented Bucks County in the state legislature and called himself a “lifelong Republican.”
“I have supported every Republican nominee from Richard Nixon to Mitt Romney. And then along came Donald Trump,” said Greenwood, who chairs Pennsylvania Republicans for Harris-Walz. “Donald Trump is utterly and unequivocally unfit for office.” He said psychiatrists call Trump a “malignant narcissist and a pathological liar…Trump cares only about himself and his ambition.”
Olivia Troy, a lifelong Republican, was a former Homeland Security adviser for Pence and also served under President George W. Bush.
When she was in the Trump administration, Troy said, “I witnessed firsthand his disregard for the American people. And his disregard for the rule of law. I had a front-row seat to the damage Trump created. And I can confidently and without hesitation say he is too dangerous to get near the Oval Office again.
“Trump has never cared about making our country safer,” she said. “Donald Trump’s north star is Donald Trump…She’ll be a president for all Americans. Donald Trump would be a president for one person: himself.”
Former GOP U.S. Reps. Barbara Comstock (R-Va.), Mickey Edwards (R-Okla.), Denver Riggleman (R-Va.), David Trott, (R-Mich.), former Georgia Republican Lt. Gov. Jeff Duncan, and former New Jersey Gov. Christie Todd Whitman were among the Harris supporters.
Former Illinois GOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger, who joined Democrats on the Jan. 6 Committee and opposed Trump in Congress said, “The last four years I’ve taken stands that have put me on the outside of the party. Some have questioned why I’ve taken the stands. The answer is simple. We must put country first. We must put our country over our party, and like you, I’m putting my country first.”
He was drawn to the Republican Party for its support of democracy and the rule of law, he said. He’s always respected strong leaders, but said Trump “is a whiny, weak, small, tiny man who is scared to death. Donald Trump may be running as a Republican, but he does not share those long-held Republican values of supporting democracy, standing for the rule of law, and faithfulness to the Constitution. As a Republican, that saddens me.” Kinzinger said Harris does share those values. Kinzinger’s support for Democrats was repaid by the Democratic-controlled Illinois legislature gerrymandering his congressional district out of existence in 2022.
After the event, Dallas, Texas resident Patrick Mendoza, who worked in the President George W. Bush administration as a program advisor to the EPA administrator, told DVJournal, “One thing W. ran on in 2000 was restoring honor and dignity to the White House. And I think, after the Trump years that’s certainly what we need and what we needed. What you have is a clear distinction in this race. You have one person who is for the Constitution and one who isn’t. One who is for the rule of law and one who isn’t. And I think it’s pretty crystal clear for a Republican who fights for limited government and for the rule of law, it’s a clear-cut choice of who that should be and who people should vote for in this race, regardless of whether there is an R or a D after their name.”
The Trump team responded.
“It’s quite pathetic to see former ‘Republicans’ of the past dug up out of irrelevance to have one last moment in the sun by campaigning for another four years of unlimited illegal immigration, rising prices, and endless wars under Kamala Harris. Fortunately, as with any other theatrical prop, they’re all going to be tossed aside the moment they stop being useful for Democrats – which will be November 5, when President Trump is reelected by Pennsylvanians,” said Pennsylvania Team Trump spokesman Kush Desai.
