Rep. Duncan Hunter, the indicted Republican from Alpine, has doubled down on race-based attacks on his opponent with a letter signed by three retired Marine Corps generals that accused the Democrat of being “a national security risk.”
Hunter, who has pleaded not guilty to federal fraud charges of misusing campaign contributions, has labeled Democratic opponent Ammar Campa-Najjar a security risk in a widely condemned ad and has sought to tie Campa-Najjar to radical Islam. Campa-Najjar, 29, is Christian and held a security clearance while working in the Obama administration. Campa-Najjar responded to the letter calling Hunter’s attacks on him “pathological.”
Roger White, Hunter’s campaign manager, said the three retired generals wrote the letter independent of the campaign, but that the campaign paid to reprint and distribute it. A picture of the letter was posted online Sunday evening.
In the letter, the three signatories — Terry Paul, who retired as a brigadier general, and Randall L. West and T.L. Corwin, both of whom retired as major generals — identify themselves as military officers who often served in San Diego. In doing so, they appear to violate military guidelines, which requires that active and former members include disclaimers alongside partisan political activity so their actions will not be misconstrued as representative of the Armed Forces as a whole.
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