Alberto Gonzales became the latest alum who served in the George W. Bush administration to endorse Democrat Vice President Harris for president. 

Gonzales, who described himself as the ‘only lawyer in American history to serve both as White House counsel and as attorney general,’ laid out his stance in an op-ed published in Politico on Thursday. 

‘As the United States approaches a critical election, I can’t sit quietly as Donald Trump — perhaps the most serious threat to the rule of law in a generation — eyes a return to the White House. For that reason, though I’m a Republican, I’ve decided to support Kamala Harris for president,’ Gonzales wrote. ‘Power is intoxicating and based on Trump’s rhetoric and conduct it appears unlikely that he would respect the power of the presidency in all instances; rather, he would abuse it for personal and political gain, and not on behalf of the American people.’ 

Gonzales took issue with the Supreme Court’s 6-3 ruling in Trump v. United States that a former president has substantial immunity from prosecution for official – but not unofficial – acts committed while in office.

‘The character of the person we elect in November is particularly important today because the current members of the House of Representatives and the Senate have proven spectacularly incapable or unwilling to check abuses of executive power,’ he wrote. ‘While the U.S. Supreme Court is certainly capable of curbing presidential power, the court has recently ruled that certain restraints on presidential acts would be unconstitutional.’

The question of presidential immunity stemmed from Special Counsel Jack Smith’s Jan. 6 case against Trump. Gonzales took jabs at Trump’s conduct during the riot at the U.S. Capitol, before turning back to the ruling, which has left many of the former president’s cases in limbo while he continues to campaign before his November matchup against Harris. 

‘Any discussion about fidelity to the rule of law has to include Trump’s 34 state felony convictions, his state civil financial judgment of libel based on sexual abuse, as well as the pending federal elections interference case, not to mention the recently dismissed federal documents case that Special Counsel Jack Smith is continuing to pursue,’ Gonzales wrote. ‘Standing alone, these charges, convictions and judgments show that Trump is someone who fails to act, time and time again, in accordance with the rule of law. There is little evidence that he has the integrity and character to responsibly wield the power of the presidency within the limits of the law. And no amount of rationalization to support Trump because of his policies can overcome the disqualification of this man based on his lack of integrity.’ 

While admitting to having spoken with Trump only once and not really knowing him, Gonzales said ‘it is telling, however, that several senior officials who worked for him in the White House now refuse to support him, including his vice president, chief of staff, defense secretary and national security adviser.’ 

For Harris, the former Bush official assessed she does not have the same level of foreign policy experience as Biden. 

Gonzales argued that Harris, who has served as the Biden administration’s border czar, should be off the hook for Biden’s economic policies and the border crisis, writing that a vice president ‘has little to no influence on economic policy’ and ‘may provide input, but it is the president who is the ultimate decision-maker.’ He said Congress is as much to blame as Biden for high prices for childcare, housing, gasoline, and groceries, while ‘Trump and his supporters in Congress assumed partial responsibility for the tough border situation when they killed bipartisan legislation in order to help Trump’s election chances.’ 

‘We do not yet know exactly how Harris will govern if she is elected,’ he wrote. ‘Casting a vote for Harris will require the American people to place their faith in her character and judgment. Some may see her as too progressive and worry she would be too easily manipulated. There is little mystery or doubt, however, about how Trump will act and govern based on past behavior and comments. He will help those who help him and his family for personal or financial reasons. He will likely pull back from our leadership role among other democracies in the fight against authoritarianism.’ 

‘Harris, meanwhile, has sworn fidelity to the rule of law as a former local prosecutor and state attorney general,’ Gonzales wrote.

Last month, a dozen Republican White House lawyers who served in the administrations of then-Presidents Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush endorsed Harris in a letter released after she formally accepted her nomination in a speech at the Democratic National Convention. 

‘We endorse Kamala Harris and support her election as President because we believe that returning former President Trump to office would threaten American democracy and undermine the rule of law in our country,’ the lawyers wrote in a letter that the signatories shared first with Fox News Digital.

The two George W. Bush administration officials who joined the letter were John B. Bellinger III, who served as senior associate counsel to the president and legal adviser to the NSC, and John M. Mitnick, who served as associate counsel to the president and deputy counsel for the White House Homeland Security Council.

George W. Bush’s former vice president, Dick Cheney, announced last week that he would go against his party’s candidate and support Harris in November. 

In a statement, Cheney wrote that ‘in our nation’s 248-year history, there has never been an individual who is a greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump. He tried to steal the last election using lies and violence to keep himself in power after the voters had rejected him. He can never be trusted with power again.’

Trump responded to Cheney’s endorsement by calling the former vice president ‘an irrelevant RINO’ in a Truth Social post shortly after Cheney’s announcement.

A day later, George W. Bush’s office said when asked by NBC News. that neither the former president nor former first lady Laura Bush would endorse a candidate publicly in the 2024 election.

Fox News’ Michael Lee, Paul Steinhauser and Brooke Singman contributed to this report. 

Not one question Wednesday night about the execution of Hersh Goldberg-Polin and five other hostages two weeks ago, or about any of the Americans murdered by Hamas terrorists on October 7?

Not one question on Iran, which is within weeks of acquiring a nuclear weapon and which is paying and perhaps precisely directing repeated attacks by its proxies on American forces in the Gulf or Arabia, the Red Sea, Iraq or Jordan?

Not one question about the capacity of President Joe Biden to continue as president?

And not one, single fleeting question about the People’s Republic of China, and its genocide against the Uyghurs, its oppression of Hong Kong, its threat against Taiwan or the Philippines, or its military buildup, the largest, most expensive peacetime military buildup in history? 

Perhaps ABC’s parent Disney put the kibosh on questions that would upset the People’s Republic of China and endanger the company’s theme parks in the country or the release of its movies in China? Who knows? But ABC and Disney made time for a long exchange on abortion rights (which have been discussed again and again in this campaign) and for an idiotic exchange of ‘regrets, I’ve got a few, but then again too few to mention’ question to Trump about January 6. There were at least four moderator interventions/rebukes disguised as ‘fact checks’ of former President Donald Trump and none of Vice President Kamala Harris. The bias pulsed. It could be felt by everyone. Democrats and leftists cheered, Republicans were first shocked and then outraged. 

When, post-debate, Trump declared it was his best debate ever because it was three against one, very few agreed with the first part of his statement and very few disagreed with the second part. 

In interviews Wednesday morning with conservative thought leaders Matt Continetti, Mary Katharine Ham, Bethany Mandel, National Review’s Rich Lowry and Jim Geraghty, not one of them thought Trump won the debate and many thought he lost, some calling it an awful performance etc. But none of them defended ABC and its moderators David Muir and Linsey Davis. I have not seen one center-right to conservative pundit do so (the opposite reaction to the CNN debate between Trump and Biden moderated by Dana Bash and Jake Tapper which was widely praised as fair on the right.)

It is also widely agreed across the center to the right to have been the worst moderated, most biased presidential debate since they began in 1960. This will eventually be admitted by the left after the election is over. Harris performed well and Trump did not. Trump got angry early and by the time he had his best moment —his closing statement—the audience had no doubt shrunk. 

But while Trump lost the battle he may have won the war. The naked suppression of news, the oozing bias, the ignorance of or refusal to reference key facts—Snopes has debunked the Charlottesville chestnut for goodness sake and thousands of Jewish kids on campuses across the country are in fear of anti-Semitic mobs within the last few months and were not even mentioned!—made ABC and Disney the real loser Wednesday night. It is possible the polls might even edge towards Trump as the ‘great silent majority’ digest the tidal wave of omnipresent criticism of the debate moderators outside of the Manhattan-Beltway media elites. We will see.  

But whatever the polls show and however the elections turns out, it is a debate that will live in infamy. While the journalistic reputations of Muir and Davis are the most scarred by the fiasco, the damage will extend to both the ABC and Disney brands, especially because of the Israel and China related-omissions. 

I have co-moderated five presidential primary debates hosted by big legacy networks as Salem Media’s representative: four with CNN in 2015-2016 and one with NBC in November of last year. None of them were prefect. But in none of them were any of the moderators a story the day after the debate because that was the goal. It should be the goal of every moderator for every debate everywhere. Basic fairness was my constant refrain in the hundreds of hours and dozens of question preparation sessions and rehearsals. The moderators work from very tight scripts. They know their question sets. We rehearse responses to anticipated responses from candidates. Wednesday’s night descent into hackery was intentional. There is no excuse. 

I did not expect a Bud-Lite level disaster for ABC and Disney, but they have created one for themselves. The GOP does not have a long memory, for if it did, it would have recalled ABC’s George Stephanopoulos infamously asking Mitt Romney in a 2012 debate ‘Governor Romney, do you believe that states have the right to ban contraception?’ Perhaps Republicans haven’t forgotten that but didn’t believe in collective media guilt. It should now. This ambush of Trump was carefully planned and well executed. If Trump wins there should never be an ABC interview. No Republican should associate with the network period. No Republican should even watch Muir or Lindsey. They are partisans but dishonest ones. They pretend otherwise. 

The worst presidential debate in American history is not something I’ve ever heard any media talent aspire to participate in. David Muir, Linsey Davis and the entire ABC/Disney team own the title now. It is highly doubtful they will ever surrender it.

Hugh Hewitt is host of ‘The Hugh Hewitt Show,’ heard weekday mornings 6am to 9am ET on the Salem Radio Network, and simulcast on Salem News Channel. Hugh wakes up America on over 400 affiliates nationwide, and on all the streaming platforms where SNC can be seen. He is a frequent guest on the Fox News Channel’s news roundtable hosted by Bret Baier weekdays at 6pm ET. A son of Ohio and a graduate of Harvard College and the University of Michigan Law School, Hewitt has been a Professor of Law at Chapman University’s Fowler School of Law since 1996 where he teaches Constitutional Law. Hewitt launched his eponymous radio show from Los Angeles in 1990.  Hewitt has frequently appeared on every major national news television network, hosted television shows for PBS and MSNBC, written for every major American paper, has authored a dozen books and moderated a score of Republican candidate debates, most recently the November 2023 Republican presidential debate in Miami and four Republican presidential debates in the 2015-16 cycle. Hewitt focuses his radio show and his column on the Constitution, national security, American politics and the Cleveland Browns and Guardians. Hewitt has interviewed tens of thousands of guests from Democrats Hillary Clinton and John Kerry to Republican Presidents George W. Bush and Donald Trump over his 40 years in broadcast, and this column previews the lead story that will drive his radio/ TV show today.

House Republicans are privately expressing frustration about former President Trump’s performance in his debate against Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday.

Several House GOP lawmakers granted anonymity to speak freely acknowledged Trump ‘missed’ opportunities to effectively attack Harris and tout his own record. A few said it was the prevailing sentiment within the House Republican Conference that Harris successfully baited him on multiple occasions — though most argued it would ultimately have little impact on Election Day.

‘It was terrible. I think you’re seeing that comment from everybody,’ one senior House Republican told Fox News Digital.

‘The thing that’s terrible is, he had so many opportunities to come after her and he didn’t. He got bogged down on the hook she was dragging through the water.’

Another House GOP lawmaker went even further, calling the debate a ‘dumpster fire’ for the former president.

‘It was one of the worst bloodlettings I’ve ever seen,’ the lawmaker said. ‘But the thing is, too, the optics itself — Trump standing next to Kamala Harris, he looks old. He didn’t look old against Biden…and that, you can’t fix.’

While most Republicans shrugged off the debate’s ultimate effect on the election, that lawmaker worried, ‘I think it’s gonna sway the people in the middle, who matter.’

A third Republican said Harris ‘certainly got under [Trump’s] skin’ and their fellow conference members agreed ‘she did well.’

GOP lawmakers who spoke with Fox News Digital argued Trump’s policies and record are far stronger than Harris’ and were dismayed that they weren’t a larger part of his performance.

‘While he made many [good] points, she was able to slide out of every one of those arguments,’ the third Republican said. ‘We need to stop treating her like she’s Joe Biden, someone who can’t get her thoughts out, and treat her more like Hillary Clinton.’

A fourth GOP lawmaker simply said when asked for their reaction to the debate, ‘I prefer not to answer questions about cats and dogs and immigrants.’

That person added as well, however, that Harris ‘had to present herself as a person with credibility and a policy agenda, she didn’t do that.’

They said it was Trump’s own ‘fault’ when asked if Harris successfully baited him, however.

Another Republican said they had not discussed the debate with GOP colleagues, explaining, ‘I think everybody’s just kind of bummed out.’

‘They set a trap, and he walked into it. He wasn’t helped, but there were so many easy things he could’ve said,’ the fifth lawmaker said. ‘You wanna talk about the border, the world on fire, inflation — that’s all he had to do. Instead, she poked and prodded until she got a reaction.’

A sixth GOP lawmaker simply smiled sheepishly, ‘I do think he missed some opportunities to highlight her record. And I’ll leave it at that.’

A seventh Republican who spoke with Fox News Digital at the end of the debate on Tuesday night said Harris was ‘doing a good job provoking [Trump].’

‘He’s right on policy but can’t keep a message,’ they complained.

The majority of House Republicans who spoke publicly praised Trump, though, with the top GOP leaders all declaring victory for the ex-president minutes after the debate.

Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said in a statement Tuesday night, ‘Tonight, President Donald Trump exposed Vice President Kamala Harris for the dangerous radical she has always been.’

Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., who helped Trump prepare for the debate, told reporters on Wednesday that the ex-president ‘did a great job.’

‘Look, the debate was about immigration and the economy. Those are the issues where President Trump dominates with voters,’ he said.

Trump himself posted on his Truth Social app just after the debate, ‘People are saying BIG WIN tonight!’

When reached for comment on this story, the Trump campaign pointed Fox News Digital to its statement on the debate from Tuesday night, which said in part, ‘President Trump delivered a masterful debate performance tonight, prosecuting Kamala Harris’ abysmal record of failure that has hurt Americans for the last 4 years.’

‘We saw President Trump lay out his bold vision of America and how he would continue to build upon the successes of his first term by supercharging the economy, securing the border, and stopping crime from ravaging communities across the country,’ the statement said.

‘Conversely, Kamala’s vision of America was a dark reminder of the oppressive, big government policies of Joe Biden that she wants to continue.’