More than 100 former aides to John McCain endorse Biden for president

WASHINGTON — More than 100 former staff members from the late Sen. John McCain’s, R-Ariz., campaigns and congressional offices announced Thursday that they are endorsing Joe Biden for president.

“Given the incumbent president’s lack of competent leadership, his efforts to aggravate rather than bridge divisions among Americans, and his failure to uphold American values, we believe the election of former Vice President Biden is clearly in the national interest,” they said in a letter.

As president, Biden would lead a comprehensive effort to contain the coronavirus in the U.S., they said.

Some of McCain’s former aides who signed the letter include Mark Salter, the senator's former chief of staff; Christian Ferry, who was deputy manager for McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign; Joe Donoghue, the senator's former legislative director; and Mike Murphy, a GOP political consultant who was a strategist on McCain’s 2000 presidential campaign.

Trump and McCain frequently clashed, including over efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

This endorsement, the latest in a string of GOP statements of support for Biden, comes two days after the two-year anniversary of McCain’s death from brain cancer.

Earlier this week, than two dozen former Republican Congress members backed Biden for president, and at the Democratic National Convention last week, several other Republicans endorsed the former vice president. They included former Ohio Gov. John Kasich, former New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman, former eBay and Hewlett Packard CEO Meg Whitman and former Rep. Susan Molinari of New York, who was among those on the list the Biden campaign released Monday