This series tracks prominent Republicans and Trump associates opposing him in 2020. Click on the name for the source.
1. John Bolton, Trump’s national security adviser, April 2018 to September 2019:
“I don’t think he’s fit for office. I don’t think he has the competence to carry out the job. There really isn’t any guiding principle that I was able to discern other than, ‘What’s good for Donald Trump’s reelection?’”
2. Colin Powell, secretary of state under George W Bush:
"We have a Constitution and we have to follow that Constitution, and the president has drifted away from it. I think he has not been an effective president ... He lies all the time. He began lying the day of inauguration ... And I don't think that's in our interest.”
3. Sarah Longwell, spokeswoman for Republicans for the Rule of Law:
“I’ve been a Republican my entire life. I’ve become persuaded that President Trump is very bad for the Republican Party, including the fact that he should be impeached. I really believe character counts in a President.”
4. J.W. Verret, deputy director of economic policy on Trump’s transition team:
“The Mueller report was that tipping point for me, and it should be for Republican and independent voters ... Mueller drafted what any reasonable reader would see as a referral to Congress to commence impeachment hearings. Depending on how you count, roughly a dozen separate instances of obstruction of justice are contained in the Mueller report.”
5. Mitt Romney, Republican senator and former presidential candidate:
“The president did in fact pressure a foreign government to corrupt our election process. And really, corrupting an election process in a democratic republic is about as abusive and egregious an act against the Constitution – and one's oath – that I can imagine.”
6. George Conway, prominent Republican, asked by Trump to head the Justice Department’s civil division:
“White House counsel John Dean famously told Nixon that there was a cancer within the presidency and that it was growing. What the Mueller report disturbingly shows, with crystal clarity, is that today there is a cancer in the presidency: President Donald J. Trump. Congress now bears the solemn constitutional duty to excise that cancer without delay.”
7. Jack Spielman, army veteran (33 years) and Michigan Republican:
“People ask me who I’ll vote for in 2020. I said I’ll vote for a tuna fish sandwich before I vote for Donald Trump again. Trump tries to be the biggest and the best at everything he does, however, the biggest deficits, the biggest national debt, the biggest spender, are not the things that you should set as your goals. Donald Trump is what we refer to as toxic leadership.”
8. Governor John Kasich, former Republican governor of Ohio:
"If I was sitting in the House of Representatives today and you were to ask do I think impeachment should move forward and should go for a full examination and a trial in the United States Senate, my vote would be yes ... Does this rise to the level of impeachment? I now believe that it does."
9. Anthony Scaramucci, Trump’s communications director, 21-31 July 2017:
“I cannot be affiliated with this [Trump’s racism] any more’, I’m not going to disavow my personal integrity and my life story to support this man. I’m not going to make the equivocations that these other people are making ... No, the guy stinks and he’s a racist and he’s an American nativist.”
To be continued ...
Readers’ tips in the comments are invited.