A former Donald Trump defense secretary has expressed support for the campaign messaging from Kamala Harris’ team, referring to its “joy” when prompted on who he’d vote for in the 2024 presidential election.
Mark Esper was asked by Phil Mattingly on the CNN show The Lead on Monday, “who do you think would make the country safer and stronger on the world stage, the former president or vice president Kamala Harris?”
Esper responded, “I’ve said on many occasions, I don’t think President Trump is fit for the office. To me, I set a bar that says character counts. To me, that’s what I look for first and foremost. And secondly, I look for somebody who can unify the country, who can heal the wounds.”
Patrick Semansky/AP
The CNN anchor then nudged the former Trump staffer to answer whether he would vote for Harris as president in the November election.
Esper responded, “I’ve liked her messages with regard to unifying the country. I like the positive, the joy of her campaign, which stands in stark contrast to the Trump administration.
He added that moving forward he wanted to see Harris “come to the center more” and reach out to “Reagan Republicans” like himself “who are looking for more common sense practical policies not driven by the wings of the party.”
He said, “I’ve got 70 days and we’ll see how it goes from here until then.”
The interview follows the announcement of a book, which goes on sale today at Harper Collins, by Trump’s former national security advisor H. R. McMaster called At War With Ourselves, where he argued that a number of the former president’s policies were “unwise,” according to the CNN story.
Other former Trump advisors who have since come out against him include his former vice president Mike Pence, former attorney general Bill Barr, first secretary of state Rex Tillerson, and several others, in a list of a total number of 24 aides or allies, according to CNN.
Esper also wrote a book exposing what it was to work with Trump called A Sacred Oath, which was published in 2022 after Esper sued the Department of Defense alleging they told Esper he needed to take out parts of the book relating to the former president. The lawsuit was dropped when the Pentagon gave its approval for the book to be published.
The Trump campaign and Esper have been contacted by Newsweek for comment.
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