Frances Townsend: Donald Trump is "dangerous to American people"
Sixty GOP national security experts are joining in the party's scramble to stop frontrunner Donald Trump from winning the Republican presidential nomination.
They signed a scathing open letter, calling the business mogul's vision of American power and influence "wildly inconsistent and unmoored in principle," and said he "swings from isolationism to military adventurism within the space of one sentence."
One of the experts who wrote the letter, Frances Townsend -- former homeland security adviser to President George W. Bush - explained she is speaking up now, months into the presidential race, because she did not think his rhetoric "would resonate with so many people."
"Look, I understand people's anger and frustration... but it doesn't justify some of the sort of incendiary rhetoric that Trump engages in and frankly the bullying," Townsend told "CBS This Morning" Thursday.
Townsend said Trump's controversial foreign policy proposals -- such as a ban on Muslims entering the United States and use of torture beyond waterboarding -- would be "dangerous to the American people."
While admitting a letter this late in the game may not make a difference in skewing public opinion, Townsend explained the letter offered insight from people who had the "background and expertise" in foreign policy that Donald Trump lacked. She also added that the GOP frontrunner has a "judgment and temperament issue," and needs to talk "real issues," rather than say things merely to attract the votes.
"I understand that this is the political season. So do our allies around the world, but you also expect that there's gonna be an exchange of ideas and debate on the substances, as opposed to what's happened, which is name calling and it's just not helpful," Townsend said.