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By Khaleda Rahman
National Correspondent
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A "Republicans for Harris" online rally was attended virtually by 73,000 people on Tuesday night, according to organizers.
"It is okay to be a Republican and vote for Kamala Harris. This movement is strong and growing," the group wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
The vice president's campaign launched the group in August as part of an effort to win over GOP voters put off by former president Donald Trump, the Republican nominee.
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The hour-long Zoom rally saw several former elected Republican officials and party leaders make the case for supporting the Democratic ticket in November, including former congressmen Adam Kinzinger, Joe Walsh and Denver Riggleman.
The Harris and Trump campaigns have been contacted for comment via email.
Olivia Troye, a former Trump administration official who hosted the rally, said: "Working in the White House was a realization of a lifelong dream, and I loved my job and the chance to serve my country in that way.
"So leaving the Trump White House was one of the most difficult decisions of my life, but it became a necessary one when I could no longer in good faith serve an administration that I knew was actively failing the American people. As a first hand witness to the chaos of the Trump presidency behind closed doors, I can say this: we cannot go back."
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Riggleman, once a part of the hard-right House Freedom Caucus and later an adviser to the committee that investigated the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, listed several reasons why he would not be supporting Trump.
"Number one, I don't want to vote for a felon. I think that's sort of ridiculous with 34 felony counts," he said, referring to Trump's conviction in a New York hush money case.
"Number two, I don't want to actually vote for a sexual assailant or a rapist," he added, a reference to Trump being found liable by a Manhattan jury of sexually abusing E. Jean Carroll.
"I also don't want to vote for anybody who supported the January 6 insurrection. That's pretty bad. I also don't want to vote for anybody who supports dictators like Vladimir Putin, I don't want to vote for anybody who's a conspiracy theorist. I don't want to vote for anybody who can't tell the truth and who's an inveterate liar.
"When you see the data and you see the awful things that I've seen, you saw the command-and-control infrastructure of Jan. 6, there's no way as a Republican that I could vote for anybody who's anti-Constitution."
Kinzinger said Republicans should vote for Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, because "the faith in our democracy is constantly being chipped away by Donald Trump."
He said: "Let's think of what all generations in America have done to defend this country... I think about my grandfather in World War II, I think about the Korean War, or Vietnam, my generation after 9/11 putting their lives on the line to defend this country.
"We're not asking for anybody to put their life on the line. We're just saying, you know, maybe once, just this one time if necessary, keep the label of Republican, but vote to defend this democracy. This uncomfortable alliance we have is the only thing that's going to defend the faith in our election system."
Update 08/14/24, 5:54 a.m. ET: This article has been updated with additional information.
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