Two weeks before the 2020 presidential election, Politico published a letter signed by 51 former intelligence officers falsely claiming that a New York Post story about the infamous Hunter Biden laptop was Russian disinformation. The letter was organized by Antony Blinken of the Biden campaign and former CIA Director Michael Morell. The CIA cleared it for publication.

Many Americans were outraged over this letter because it represented former intelligence officers, several with high-paid government contracts, misusing their profession to meddle in a U.S. presidential election and mislead the American public.

Undeterred by the considerable blowback generated by the 2020 Hunter Biden laptop letter, the Harris campaign has organized a similar letter against President Trump in the run-up to the 2024 presidential election that claims he is unfit to be commander-in-chief and endorses Kamala Harris.

This letter, from a group called “National Security Leaders for America,” was signed by over 700 former officials who served with several U.S. government agencies, including the CIA, State Department, and Department of Defense. The letter includes former flag officers, ambassadors, and cabinet members. Several former senior Democratic officials also signed the letter, including Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, and Susan Rice.

The new letter immediately sparked controversy when it was learned that at least nine of its signatories also signed the discredited 2020 Hunter Biden laptop letter. The President of National Security Leaders for America, Rear Admiral Michael Smith (Ret.), attempted to defuse this uproar by claiming the 2020 letter was “well-reasoned but ultimately incorrect.”

Although the press claims the new letter was signed by former “senior” national security leaders, the majority are unknown, former low-level government employees. I worked in U.S. government national security jobs for over 25 years and did not recognize most of the names on that letter.

The message of the letter is preposterous. It claims Harris would make an excellent commander-in-chief and cites her “relentless diplomacy with allies around the globe preserved a united front in support of Ukraine’s fight against Russian aggression.”

I don’t know about you, but I don’t remember seeing any “relentless diplomacy” by Kamala Harris on anything.

Even worse, the letter makes several ridiculously false accusations, such as accusing Trump of “heaping praise” on Hezbollah and “excoriating” Israel.

And, of course, the letter includes the usual Democratic talking points about Trump being an impulsive leader who threatens democracy.

This letter aims to counter one of Harris’s most significant vulnerabilities: that the world is much more dangerous and unstable today than when President Trump left the White House in January 2021.

The Harris campaign hopes a letter signed by large numbers of former national security officials will distract Americans from Trump’s successful national security record and prevent them from holding her accountable for the global instability caused by the Biden/Harris administration’s atrocious foreign policy. This includes the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the October 7, 2023, Hamas massacre against Israel, Iran’s surging nuclear program, significantly increased tensions and threats from China and other threats.

I doubt most Americans will be fooled by this bait-and-switch. They know U.S. global leadership and deterrence have seriously deteriorated during the Biden/Harris administration. They will not be talked out of this by a letter organized by the Harris campaign signed by hundreds of former Democratic officials and government bureaucrats.

Conservative political commentator Ben Domenech posted a compelling tweet expressing his anger about this letter:

Domenech makes the most important point about the letter: that it represents a well-organized and entrenched foreign policy establishment—some call this the deep state—that is determined to block the reelection of Donald Trump, who they fear will reverse their failed globalist and interventionist foreign policies and return control of the government to the American people. These former national security bureaucrats are worried there will be a major restructuring of national security agencies under a second Trump administration that will not only eliminate the inefficient and politicized bureaucracies they built over many years but will also terminate the lucrative government consulting contracts that are enriching many of them.

I am with Ben Domenech on this absurd letter by national security bureaucrats and Democratic officials: Americans should vote accordingly.

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Fred Fleitz previously served as National Security Council chief of staff, CIA analyst, and a House Intelligence Committee staff member.