A second former Trump administration Department of Homeland Security (DHS) official spoke out against the president and threw her support behind Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden in an ad released Wednesday.
Elizabeth Neumann, a former DHS assistant secretary for threat prevention, said the U.S. is “less safe today” because of President Trump’s leadership.
“A very common refrain that I was asked was ‘Does the president’s rhetoric make your job harder?’ And the answer is yes,” Neumann said in an ad by the group Republican Voters Against Trump (RVAT).
“The president’s actions and his language are in fact racist,” she added.
Neumann said Trump’s failure to disavow white nationalist activity — particularly the deadly 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Va. — may have potentially led to more instances of violence.
Trump has been repeatedly criticized for his remarks following the violence in Charlottesville, when he said there were “very fine people on both sides,” meaning both the white nationalists and the counterprotesters.
“Those words gave permission to white supremacists to think that what they were doing was permissible,” Neumann said. “And I do think the president’s divisive language is indirectly tied to some of the attacks that we have seen in the last two years.”
Last week, RVAT began promoting ads that featured Miles Taylor, a former chief of staff at DHS under Trump, who said the president is unfit for the job. The group is reportedly recruiting as many as 40 Republican former officials for their effort to boost Biden’s candidacy.
During the Democratic convention last week, the party sought to highlight high-profile Republicans and former Trump administration officials who are backing Biden, such as former Ohio Gov. John Kasich.