Key House Dems claim Trump would weaken US

Eleven House Democrats on Monday warned that Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump would make the United States less safe, as the presidential race appeared to pivot back to national security.

Rep. Adam Smith (Wash.), the top Democrat on the House Armed Serviced Committee, led 10 of his colleagues in a letter organized by 4D PAC, which supports left-leaning lawmakers with a focus on national security.

“Given the challenges our country faces today, America needs a commander-in-chief with proven qualities of wisdom, experience, resolve, and rationality,” they wrote. “Trump has none of these.”

"We believe, as president, Donald Trump would simply make America less safe."

The signatories represent a hodgepodge of interests in U.S. national security.

Among them are four other members of the Armed Services Committee — Reps. Tammy Duckworth (Ill.), Seth Moulton (Mass.), Ruben Gallego (Ariz.) and Scott Peters (Calif.) — as well as four members of the Intelligence Committee — Reps. Mike Thompson (Calif.), Patrick Murphy (Fla.), Jim Himes (Conn.) and Eric Swalwell (Calif.). Also signing the letter are Reps. Ted Lieu (Calif.), who is an Air Force veteran, and Derek Kilmer (Wash.), whose district includes Naval Base Kitsap.

Duckworth and Murphy are both running for Senate seats in races that could be key to Democrats’ hopes of gaining a majority in the upper chamber.

“Every voter deserves to know whether their congressional representative believes Dangerous Donald Trump is fit to be our commander in chief,” Jim Arkedis, the president of 4D PAC, said in a statement to The Hill.

“In this letter, eleven of the most qualified Democratic national security experts in the House clearly state Trump is unfit to lead our military and challenge Republicans in every district across the country to do likewise."

The letter comes as Trump and Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton dueled over national security on Monday, following new apparent terror plots in the U.S.

Earlier in the day, police apprehended a suspect wanted in connection with a pair of explosions in New Jersey and New York City, in episodes that officials suspect might have a connection overseas. This weekend, a man linked to the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) stabbed at least eight people in a Minnesota shopping mall before being shot and killed by an off-duty police officer.