Former Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff announced Monday that he has endorsed Hillary Clinton for president.
In an interview with Bloomberg, Chertoff, a former Bush administration official, announced his support for Clinton, pointing to her stances on national security and his opposition to Donald Trump. Chertoff, a lifelong Republican, has been an outspoken detractor of the GOP nominee. He was one of 50 foreign policy experts to sign a letter denouncing Trump as the party’s nominee, warning that he would be “dangerous” if elected president.
He also has a long history with Clinton, dating back to the 1990s when he served as the lead Republican counsel on the Senate Whitewater Committee, which investigated real estate investments by the then-first lady and her husband. She was also the lone senator to oppose him on two votes, including his nomination to the U.S. Court of Appeals to the third circuit in 2003. However, the tension between the two has eased. Last month, Chertoff met with Clinton as part of a bipartisan group of foreign policy minds.
“I realized we spent a huge amount of time in the ’90s on issues that were much less important than what was brewing in terms of terrorism,” Chertoff told Bloomberg, adding that Clinton “has good judgment and a strategic vision on how to deal with the threats that face us.”
However, Chertoff’s opposition to Trump is a key driving force for the decision. Specifically, Trump’s “cozying up” to the Russians and President Vladimir Putin in the face of America’s alliance with NATO, which the real estate mogul has attacked in the past.
“Trump’s sense of loyalties are misplaced. … Some of our NATO allies sent troops overseas, at the same time he is defending Russia and trying to dismiss what is widely acknowledged to be Russian intrusions into the databases of our political parties and political figures,” Chertoff said, adding that this amounted to “making enemies of your friends and cozying up to your adversaries.”
Chertoff also attacked Trump’s temperament, citing the days after last week’s debate that saw the GOP nominee become involved in a back-and-forth with Alicia Machado, a past winner of the Miss Universe pageant who Trump once referred to as “Miss Piggy” after she gained weight. In an early morning Twitter rant last week, Trump urged his supporters to “check out” a sex tape Machado was allegedly in, but has yet to be proven.
“This issue came up at the debate about Miss Universe,” Chertoff said. “Not only did he seem at the debate to lose his temper, but to get up at 3:30 a.m. and reach for your smartphone is to me a hysterical reaction. If you’re president, the button you reach for is not the Twitter button; it’s the nuclear button.”
