Repudiating Trump

| 3:00 pm EDT October 30, 2024
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Far too many prominent Republicans secretly disagree with, if not despise, Donald Trump, yet are too cowardly to speak out. However, some key conservative voices have been doubling and tripling down with their anti-Trump warnings ahead of the critical presidential election.
Liz Cheney, for example, has not only endorsed Kamala Harris but has campaigned with her, aiming to give so-called permission to disgruntled Republicans to make an exception to their voting record this time for the sake of saving democracy. Fortunately, Cheney isn’t the only Republican who is going out on a far limb, showing both a sincerity and an urgency behind their message.

Retired judge and attorney J. Michael Luttig is about as conservative as you can get. While he is proud of his record, he is not proud of the GOP under Trump. Appointed by George H.W. Bush, Luttig served on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit from 1991 to 2006. Despite his long record as a leading conservative legal figure, Luttig has been highly critical of Trump.

In August, Luttig not only officially repudiated Trump, but announced he will “unhesitatingly vote for” Harris, calling her the only candidate who “can claim the mantle of defender and protector of America’s Democracy, the Constitution, and the Rule of Law.” While acknowledging that Harris’ positions are “vastly different” from his, Luttig said he is “indifferent” this time around and believes “all Americans should be” prioritizing “America’s Democracy, the Constitution, and the Rule of Law.”

With the election now a week away, Luttig is back with an even stronger warning in the form of a guest essay for The New York Times on Tuesday, titled “Trump Betrayed America. My Fellow Republicans Must Put Country Above Party.” Luttig wrote that he doesn’t “recognize the Republican Party that I have known across my lifetime,” observing that it’s not the party of Lincoln or Reagan—and it’s not even conservative. On the contrary, “the party… stands only for one man and that man’s disfigurement of both republicanism and conservatism.”

Luttig concludes his latest exhortation by pointing out that while Harris calls on Americans to “stand up for the rule of law” and that we “have the power to chart a new way forward,” Trump will never utter such words. Adding that “[t]he choice for America next Tuesday could not be clearer,” Luttig is driving home the remarkable point that, despite obvious policy differences, supporting the Democratic candidate is the right answer for conservatives this time around.