More than 200 Bush, McCain, Romney alums endorse Harris for president | The Excerpt

On Tuesday’s episode of The Excerpt podcast: USA TODAY White House Correspondent Joey Garrison discusses how hundreds of former aides of high profile Republican politicians have endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for president . Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith urged a federal appeals court Monday to reinstate the classified documents case against former President Donald Trump. Donald Trump casts doubt on the September debate . The Democratic Party has sued the Georgia State Election Board over new rules to 'prevent chaos.' USA TODAY Justice Department Correspondent Aysha Bagchi takes a closer look at the rules. Starliner astronauts won’t return until 2025.

Hit play on the player below to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript beneath it. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text.

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Taylor Wilson:

Good morning. I'm Taylor Wilson, and today is Tuesday, August 27th, 2024. This is The Excerpt.

Today, hundreds of former aides of Republican political leaders have endorsed Kamala Harris. Plus, what new Georgia Election Board rules mean. And NASA astronauts will get a few additional unexpected months in space.

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More than 200 former aides of several high-profile Republicans endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for President in an open letter yesterday obtained exclusively by USA TODAY. I spoke with USA TODAY White House correspondent, Joey Garrison to learn more.

Howdy, Joey.

Joey Garrison:

Hey, Taylor. Thanks for having me on.

Taylor Wilson:

Thanks for hopping on. So Joey, what is this letter and who are some of the folks endorsing Kamala Harris here?

Joey Garrison:

238 former Republican staffers for the last three presidential nominees prior to Trump. You got Mitt Romney, John McCain, George W. Bush, also a handful from his father, George H. Walker Bush, all endorsing Kamala Harris here. These are either folks who worked in policy or press communications, or even on their campaign side as well, all coming out saying a second Trump presidency is unacceptable to them and they support Kamala Harris. There was a similar group that formed; this one's actually a little bit bigger. A similar group formed four years ago endorsing Joe Biden over Trump. And so now they say they are reunited again to try to get Kamala Harris elected.

Taylor Wilson:

And Joey, did they outline reasons here for supporting the Democratic nominee?

Joey Garrison:

Yeah. They pointed to both concerns domestically as well as abroad. They actually singled out the Project 2025 agenda that of course came from the Heritage Foundation. It's a policy platform blueprint of sorts that the Trump campaign has sought to distance itself from, arguing that Trump would be more dangerous in office if he gets a second go around. Also pointed to broad foreign policy concerns that they have with a second Trump presidency about how he would respond to Russia, dictators like Vladimir Putin of course, bringing up the issue of NATO and whether the US would be fully supportive of NATO during a second Trump presidency.

And again, this comes on the heels of the DNC convention last week in which we saw Democrats, Kamala Harris put out several Republican speakers that tried to vouch for her and say, "Hey, the stakes are too high to put country over party in this case," arguing that America can't afford Trump back in the White House.

Taylor Wilson:

And Joey, in terms of the folks these former aides used to work for, have we heard, for instance, from Mitt Romney, George W. Bush in terms of where they stand on this election and whether they're going to endorse anyone?

Joey Garrison:

Yeah, not really. I mean, so from Romney, he has made clear he's not going to endorse Donald Trump. That's no surprise. But he has not endorsed Harris. I think we can expect that he will not endorse the Democratic nominee, though I don't know that for certain. But I think just based on how he's taken the last two Trump elections, that would be sort of the pattern.

The Bush family and Trump has been at odds for quite a while. You can remember in the 2016 primary, Trump was really ruthlessly going after Jeb Bush, who was a candidate at the time. George W. Bush has not been one to publicly go after Trump, but he was not at the RNC Convention last month, nor was he at the one for them. He's kind of distanced himself from the Republican Party.

Of course, the late John McCain had his own disagreements with Trump. Memorably, of course, Trump went after the military service of John McCain. John McCain's widow actually endorsed Joe Biden during the last election. She's not yet endorsed in this race, but I'm certain that she will not be endorsing Trump.

Taylor Wilson:

This has kind of been all about Democrats in recent days with the convention last week. Have we heard from the Trump camp or any prominent Republicans after these endorsements, Joey?

Joey Garrison:

The Trump campaign, of course, in the last couple of days have trotted out their own group of two notable Democrats, or at least former Democrats who have endorsed him. That would be Robert F. Kennedy Jr. who was originally running as a Democrat a year ago, then ran as a Independent. Kennedy suspended his bid and got behind Trump. And then Tulsi Gabbard, the former Congresswoman from Hawaii, a Democrat, endorsed Trump. She's long been aligned with Trump, so that wasn't really a surprise either.

So I think both parties, but definitely more the Harris campaign is trying to show, "Hey, we have a large group of independent moderate Republicans." And they're trying to signal to the voters out there who might not agree policy-wise with Kamala Harris and Democrats, but also don't like Donald Trump, they're trying to say, "Hey, it's okay. There are other people who are in that same camp. Come over, vote for Kamala Harris, make your vote for democracy or decency," are some of the arguments that they put out. And it's okay to distance yourself from the Republican Party, from Trump, even if he might be a long-time Republican.

Taylor Wilson:

All right, Joey Garrison is a White House correspondent with USA TODAY. Thank you, Joey.

Joey Garrison:

Hey, thank you.

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Taylor Wilson:

Justice Department Special Counsel Jack Smith urged a Federal Appeals Court yesterday to reinstate the classified documents' case against former President Donald Trump by arguing the prosecution team was appointed correctly. US District Judge Eileen Cannon dismissed the case against Trump last month by ruling Smith's job is so powerful he should have either been confirmed by the Senate or Congress should have explicitly authorized the post.

Trump was charged with taking hundreds of documents that belonged to the government and hoarding them after leaving office. Smith argued in his appeal that two statutes allow the Attorney General to name special counsels. For decades, similar appointments have been upheld by other courts, including the Supreme Court. Attorney General Merrick Garland had made a similar argument in testimony to Congress. Judge Cannon, who was appointed by Trump, has made a number of unusual decisions in the case that have been favorable to him. She has brushed off concerns about her impartiality from superiors.

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Former President Donald Trump on Sunday cast doubt about whether he would participate in the first presidential debate against Vice President Kamala Harris. In a Truth Social post, he asked, "Why would I do the debate against Kamala Harris on that network?" He criticized Jonathan Karl's interview with Tom Cotton on ABC's This Week, as well as the show's panel of commentators. ABC News is set to host the debate on September 10th. It's the only one both nominees have agreed to ahead of election day.

Trump also called for a debate on September 4th, hosted by Fox News, that the Harris campaign has not accepted. Trump focused some of his criticism on Donna Brazile, the former Chair of the Democratic National Committee who came under fire in 2016 after WikiLeaks released emails showing she sent Town Hall topics to Hillary Clinton's campaign. Trump also alleged that Harris's close friend heads up ABC in an apparent reference to Disney Executive Dana Walden. Walden has long been friends with Harris, but ABC News has said she is only involved in the outlet's corporate and financial sectors.

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The Georgia State Election Board was sued yesterday by several election officials and Democrats over recent rules passed by three Trump-approved board members. The plaintiffs want to ensure the new rules don't prevent November election results from being certified on time. Before news of the lawsuit, I talked about the new rules with USA TODAY Justice Department correspondent, Aysha Bagchi.

Aysha, thanks for hopping on the show today.

Aysha Bagchi:

Thanks, Taylor. I'm happy to be here.

Taylor Wilson:

So Aysha, what are these new rules passed by Georgia Election Board Republicans?

Aysha Bagchi:

We've seen multiple rules passed in the last handful of weeks, and there may be more to come. They all have to do with how the upcoming November election is administered. For example, one rule requires County Certifying Officials. These are the people who certify the results of the election in separate counties in Georgia to engage in a "reasonable inquiry" into the results before certifying them. That new rule doesn't define what a reasonable inquiry means, but it does tell County Certifying Officials that they need to engage in one. Another rule empowers County Election Board members to investigate even small discrepancies between the number of ballots cast and the number of voters before they certify the results.

And there's a proposed rule that could be approved next month that would require hand-counting of votes to make sure that they match what is coming out in machines. With that one, there have been some election security experts who express concern that when it comes to administering an election, you have these election workers who have been working really long hours as the election unfolds, and they might have very small mistakes when it comes to hand counting individual ballots at the end of those long hours that could create a discrepancy or that it would just interfere with the chain of custody for physical paper ballots that are ultimately the paper trail for an election.

And when it comes to all these changes and proposed changes, there just have been election security experts that are worried both about the last minute change to the rules and how you implement this across the state, and worried about the idea that the election results might not be certified on time. And that could throw the election into chaos where we'd have this sort of vacuum; you don't know who won the election, there's a space for disinformation to spread about what happened in the election.

Taylor Wilson:

Yeah. So Aysha, what effect might these rules really have on delaying election results? What does all this mean functionally?

Aysha Bagchi:

It's yet to be seen what it means because we haven't seen it play out. And that is one thing that election officials have really expressed concern about. I talked to Republican and Democratic former Secretaries of States who talked about the idea that election officials never like last-minute changes to the rules. One person likened it to changing the rules of the game in the last game of the World Series. You actually don't know how that'll play out, and that in itself is dangerous.

They talked about the idea that when you have an election that's administered and then you don't know the results right afterwards, especially in a climate in which there has been a lot of doubt sown about US elections in the past four years, that only feeds into the type of disinformation, misinformation that can spread in the country.

And one former Secretary of State really compared it to what foreign adversaries try to do in US elections to begin with, where they want Americans to be pitted against each other and to not believe in their institutions. And in that sense, she said that the Georgia State Election Board might be creating rules that are really helping American adversaries out. That is the fear going on when it comes to these rule changes.

Taylor Wilson:

And Aysha, can you help us understand who's actually behind these rules?

Aysha Bagchi:

There have been changes to that board in recent months. It's a five-person board, and with a lot of these last-minute election changes that are going on, you have three particular members of that board, there are three Republicans who Trump named, called out by name in a recent Atlanta rally, said that they're doing a great job and said that they are pitbulls fighting for honesty, transparency, and victory. That was a line that really caused a lot of alarm in people, who said election board members shouldn't be fighting for victory for anyone. Their job is simply to make sure that elections are conducted appropriately.

So we can see that Donald Trump is paying attention. We don't know how involved he is in these specific roles, but we do see that people associated with Trump and with his 2020 election denial claims have been associated with the rule changes. That includes someone named Cleta Mitchell. She is someone who spoke on Trump's call in 2020, instructing Georgia Secretary of State to find Trump the 12,000 votes that he needed to reverse Joe Biden's win in the state.

In May, one of the election board members changed. There was a Republican member who was on the board that was basically removed and replaced by another Republican. And now we've seen these new changes ushered in. That's why you're seeing a lot of last-minute moves that are causing alarm for people who administer elections and for election security experts.

Taylor Wilson:

And Aysha, in terms of just defending these rules, why they might be necessary, what are these board members actually saying?

Aysha Bagchi:

The board members have talked about wanting to make sure that people do have confidence in our elections. One board member told me in a recent story I did that she thinks that there's a lot of concern about US elections and the election in Georgia from both Democrats and Republicans, and that her goal is ultimately to make sure that people have confidence in the elections. So when you look at the initiatives that are being pushed forward, they definitely are aimed at ideas about getting vote tallies correct and making sure that the candidate that gets the most votes is the one certified as the winner of Georgia.

Taylor Wilson:

Great explainer. Aysha Bagchi covers the Justice Department for USA TODAY. Thank you, Aysha.

Aysha Bagchi:

Thanks, Taylor.

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Taylor Wilson:

The two NASA astronauts who flew to space aboard the Boeing Starliner thought they might be home in time for Independence Day, but they won't even be back on Earth to ring in the New year. Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams won't return to Earth until 2025, and they've already been at the International Space Station for nearly three months after arriving June 6th for what was initially scheduled to be a little more than a week-long stay.

But NASA officials announced over the weekend that after a thorough analysis of the Starliner spacecraft, the vehicle wasn't up to the task of reliably transporting Wilmore and Williams for the return trip. That responsibility will now instead fall to Boeing's aerospace competitor, SpaceX. Meanwhile, the Starliner spacecraft will return to Earth empty-handed. The mission marked the first crew demonstration of the spacecraft, which is intended to compete with SpaceX to make routine trips to space on behalf of NASA.

The partnership signifies a shift in recent years for the US space agency, which has pivoted to paying private companies for missions it once would carry out itself as a way to cut costs. The pair of astronauts are at the Space Station with several others from their own missions, and NASA has insisted there are enough supplies on board. You can read more with a link in today's show notes.

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Thanks for listening to The Excerpt. You can get the podcast wherever you get your audio. And if you're on a smart speaker, just ask for The Excerpt. I'm Taylor Wilson, and I'll be back tomorrow with more of The Excerpt from USA TODAY.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: More than 200 Bush, McCain, Romney alums endorse Harris for president | The Excerpt