Ryan part of veterans’ group backing Biden
The Ulster County executive on Thursday helped launch the organization supporting the Democrat presidential candidate.
A group of military veterans from New York state, including Ulster County Executive Pat Ryan, has formed a group backing Democrat Joe Biden for president.
The group, called New York State Veterans and Military Families for Biden, was launched Thursday, led by Ryan and other former members of the military.
Ryan, a Democrat, is a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, and he went on to be a captain in the Army. He served two tours in Iraq as an Army intelligence officer.
The new group is planning online events and organizing veterans for canvassing in the neighboring battleground state of Pennsylvania.
“We are proud to come together as veterans and launch the group to elect Joe Biden as our next president,” the group said in a prepared statement. “Serving in uniform, we know what it means to have each other’s backs. Joe Biden has always had our backs as veterans, and now it’s our turn to have his.”
The group also said it has “watched with dismay and concern as the [Trump] administration attempts to use the U.S. military in increasingly political ways, including against U.S. citizens peacefully demonstrating on American soil. We join many fellow veterans across the country, including several former chairs of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in condemning this distortion of the constitutionally-defined relationship between the military and its civilian leadership.”