“And maybe this loss will tell the Republican party, enough’s enough.”
“My name’s Forest. I live in the state of Virginia. I’m a former Trump voter that will be voting for Harris. I’m a retired US Army veteran and, the Republicans have always, you know, looked out for veterans, looked out for active duty military, with either pay bumps and pay raises. And, just in general with coming to rallies and the way they treat the military and how they use the military.
“Yeah, that has become more apparent with some of the things that Trump said about the military and veterans over the four years, since he entered in 2016 to the presidential race. So, it was something that I think a lot of us were willing to overlook just ’cause we had no clue what was happening back in 2016.
“Some of the stuff he said about John McCain. It’s reached the point now, after January 6th. In current, some of the comments he said about, anything in the country being more valuable than the Medal of Honor. Because you don’t have to get wounded or shot or killed to get it.
“That kind of stuff, it shouldn’t need to be said. It’s off limits conversation. Some of the stuff, the visit to National Arlington National Cemetery is just, one more disgraceful thing that he’s done in front of the graves of fallen Marines. That should, that stuff should have been done.
“If you wanna take a political picture, you take it outside. So some of that stuff and going back in research and John McCain had a similar ad. He was walking through the graves and it created outrage about him doing that, he pulled it right down and said, I’m sorry.
“And that’s the kind of Republican leaders we need to get back to. Make a mistake, you own up to it. You don’t just push through. So I think that’s one of the main reasons why I think we need that personality back in the Republican party.
“Growing up in the military, every leader is responsible for their words.
“And it’s, you have to know that a position of leadership, people follow you. The words you use can create them to do and motivate them to do certain things. And if you’re only out for yourself and you’re not taking a look at what your actions and words are doing to your following, your group, that’s toxic leadership is what that is.
“And you have to be responsible for your words. I feel that Donald Trump is not. His divisive rhetoric has forced families apart. My family included. I have family members that will not talk to me because I will not vote for him again.
“Anybody who says today that they’re not voting for the man, they’re voting for the policy. He was not able to execute his policy, besides his tax cuts in the first term. Actually, his tariffs that he put in place, to charge extra taxes on imports, that forced other countries to charge tariffs on our exports for produce, which hurt the farmland.
“Most of the farmers had to be given aid in supplements to keep them afloat. Besides the tax cuts, he didn’t get anything done the first time. Everything he talked about. It didn’t happen. But his second term will be much of the same. He’s four or five years older now, and you can definitely tell in his rallies his mental capacity is declining. That’s why I was having a difficult choice with the Trump versus Biden decision.
“And I think now the country gets an out, and I’m on board with Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger. You don’t, voting for the Harris-Walz ticket doesn’t make me a Democrat. It makes me an American. It makes me somebody that is voting for my country because I’ve been around the office of the president in previous positions.
“That person has to have the energy level to keep up with the demands of the job, and she does. So that’s the direction that I think the country should go. And maybe this loss will tell the Republican party, enough’s enough. We need to go back and reinvent and get back on track to governing correctly.”