Dear Senator McCain:
I write to you today to urge you to reject the nomination of Rex Tillerson as Secretary of State. Mr. Tillerson’s close ties to the Kremlin disqualify him from this high office; they are particularly troubling at a time when it is clear that Russia has sought to undermine American democracy.
Our republic must be defended. My grandfather, Gerald Lewis Huff, was, like you, a naval aviator and a graduate of Annapolis (1929). Like you, he served his country proudly, and, like you, he fought to defend the values of the United States. He was the flight officer on the U.S.S. Hornet when she was sunk by the Japanese at the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands. He fought to defend the United States against the Japanese and the Germans during the Second World War, earning the Legion of Merit during the conflict. After the war, he commanded the U.S.S. Yorktown during its mission to patrol the Formosa Strait.
That ship, the “Fighting Lady,” is now berthed at Patriots Point Naval and Maritime Museum in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. Last December, Donald Trump gave a speech from the deck of that ship in which he promised to “make our country great again.” My grandfather would be horrified by Mr. Trump’s notion of greatness. The United States my grandfather defended was a nation that believed in freedom and stood in opposition to tyranny; Mr. Trump wants to cozy up to the greatest enemy of freedom in our world, Russia’s Vladimir Putin. Mr. Trump explicitly asked Mr. Putin to interfere in our election. Here is what he said: “‘I will tell you this, Russia: If you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing,’ the Republican nominee said at a news conference in Florida. ‘I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press.”
My grandfather was not a particularly political man, but I think he knew what the United States stood for: freedom, decency, honor. I can only imagine my grandfather’s reaction to Mr. Trump’s demand: shock, horror, and disgust. The greatness of America rested not in the bluster and bombast of wealthy men, but in the courage and dedication of ordinary men and women who cherished the noble experiment of American democracy.
More than a century and a half ago, Abraham Lincoln stood on the fields of Gettysburg to declare, “that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” But that is precisely what Mr. Putin wants — and the confirmation of Rex Tillerson as Secretary of State will make it easier for Mr. Putin to accomplish his ends.
As it becomes clear how relentlessly Vladimir Putin’s Russia has sought to undermine democracy–in Ukraine, in Western Europe, and in our recent elections, it is ever more important for us to put country above party and principle ahead of profit. I beseech you to take a lead against Mr. Tillerson’s confirmation.
Thank you,
André Lambelet
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