Military veterans in NH rally behind Harris, denounce Donald Trump and Kelly Ayotte

Making the case that their military codes of honor, service, and conduct was guiding their actions, a group of New Hampshire military veterans gathered in Portsmouth this week to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris for president. They also provided an urgent warning of the dangers posed by former President Donald Trump’s openly stated threats to democracy and his “Project 2025” agenda.

Featuring speakers with distinguished service records, including Maura Sullivan, a former Marine Corps officer and Assistant Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs under President Barack Obama; Ed McCabe, a retired Army company commander; Curtis Register, a former Marine; and Josh Denton, an Army veteran and Portsmouth city councilor.

“Service to country and defense of democracy are tenets I hold dear, which is why I joined a bipartisan group of 700 military officials and national security leaders around our country who signed an open letter to the American people endorsing Vice President Harris,” said Sullivan, who comes from a family with a proud tradition of military service.

Sullivan did not mince words in her assessment of Trump’s fitness for office, calling him “unhinged, unstable, and unfit to serve as commander-in-chief.” She pointed to Trump’s recent comments about using the National Guard and military against “the enemy within” – his own fellow Americans – as a clear sign of his disregard for democratic norms.

Sullivan also took aim at New Hampshire gubernatorial candidate Kelly Ayotte, criticizing her shifting stance on Trump and her record on issues like background checks and public education.

“Kelly Ayotte cannot be trusted. She stood for Donald Trump eight years ago. Then she said she didn’t. Now she says, she does – is that someone that we can trust leading our state?” said Sullivan

Ed McCabe, who served as a company commander during the invasion of Iraq and completed three combat tours in Afghanistan, echoed Sullivan’s concerns. He accused Trump of being “not interested in public service” and “interested in self-service.”

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“Look no further than the Project 2025 if you look deep enough, it would cut disabled veterans benefits, and it threatens our democracy,” McCabe said. “A consolidating power to the Oval Office and the presidency like no president has ever had.”

McCabe also condemned Trump’s suggestion that if you “can’t kill” protesters, you should “just shoot them in the leg,” calling it “unconscionable.”

Curtis Register, a former Marine who served during the Global War on Terror, delivered a scathing rebuke of Trump’s actions, including his disrespect for Gold Star families, war heroes like the late Senator John McCain, and his role in the January 6th attack on the Capitol.

“The only time a Confederate flag and a Nazi flag have stood in our state capitol or our federal capitol is with supporters and direction from President Donald J. Trump,” Register said. “Our Founding Fathers would be rolling over in our graves that they took all the risk and sacrifice to take on a superpower as farmers at the time, to unseat a king that had no business in our daily lives, for us to go a couple 100 years later and vote a king in.”

Josh Denton, a city councilor and Army combat advisor, warned that a second Trump presidency rooted in his “extreme Project 2025 agenda” would be “all about control over our lives, plotting a massive expansion of presidential power with plans to restructure the government and concentrate power in his own hands.”

In contrast, the veterans praised Vice President Harris as the kind of steady, effective leader the country needs. They emphasized her commitment to the rule of law, the Constitution, and her respect for the sacrifices made by service members.

“Kamala Harris has stood up for the rule of law her entire career, from her time as a prosecutor to the Attorney General to the United States, to Senator, to now vice president,” Denton said. “She respects the law and cares deeply about the Constitution and those of us who fought to protect it.”