The plans come as several prominent Republicans — whose party is traditionally more hawkish — on Thursday flatly rejected Trump's comments. Trump said  in a New York Times interview that if Russia attacked the Baltic states he would decide to come to their aid based on whether those countries "have fulfilled their obligations to us." The remarks were widely interpreted as a sharp break with a long-standing tenet of US foreign policy, the collective defense commitment under Article 5 of NATO's founding treaty.

In a press call on Thursday to roll out the Third Way and Truman National Security Project's "Admit He's Unfit" campaign, Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., the vice chair of the Democratic Policy and Communications Center, noted that 20 Republican senators chose not to go to the convention.

"We certainly can see why: certainly based on the kind of comments in that recent interview that Donald Trump has done," Stabenow said. "About half of those up for re-election have chosen not to be in Cleveland with their nominee. And so we are calling on Republican senators who've not attended the party convention to just admit it; just admit that Donald Trump is not fit to be commander-in-chief."

"Donald Trump's worldview starts with Donald Trump, ends with Donald Trump, and there's nothing in between," said Reed, D-R.I. "When it comes to foreign policy he is ill-informed, inexperienced and completely unprepared in every dimension. Much of what he says is contrary to our national interests."

"Donald Trump is unfit to lead our nation," Reed said. "Indeed his combustible, impulsive, narcissistic insecurity could be a threat to our national security."

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Stabenow said, "is ready on day one to be commander-in-chief. Donald Trump is simply temperamentally unfit and unqualified for the job."

The "Admit He's Unfit" campaign seeks to ask down-ballot Republicans whether or not they support Trump to lead the military. The strategy could create a conundrum for politically vulnerable Republican candidates who are walking a tightrope with their nominal support for the party's polarizing nominee.

"Given the stakes, we intend to pressure Republicans of conscience to admit it as well," said Third Way President Jon Cowan. "We've never considered doing something like this before, and if anyone credible was the Republican nominee this year we would not do so now.

"I disagree with that," McConnell, who was in Cleveland, told Politico. "NATO is the most important military alliance in world history. I want to reassure our NATO allies that if any of them get attacked, we'll be there to defend them."

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chair Bob Corker, who was briefly rumored to be on the short-list of Trump running mates, also distanced himself. Corker, like Trump, has questioned whether NATO partners are sharing their part of the burden, particularly if they are not meeting the alliance's key defense spending benchmark, two percent of their GDP—but Corker drew the line there.

"First of all, our Article 5 commitments should never be questioned," Corker, R-Tenn., said Thursday in an email to Defense News. "It is the essence of the alliance. It is true, however, that many of us on both sides of the aisle are becoming exasperated that most members of the alliance are not honoring their obligations. A good example is Germany, where 40,000 American troops are stationed, yet they fail to fulfill the two-percent spending requirement. In order for the alliance to be what it is intended to be, all parties must live up to their commitments."

"It's true there are a lot of countries, friends of ours that have not borne their fair share of the burden, and that needs to change," Bolton said Thursday in a speech to about 200 members of Florida's delegation to the convention. "But let's be equally clear: we're not doing this for them; we're doing it for us. And if we stop doing it, nobody else is going to do it for us."

Sen. Lindsey Graham, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee who ran for the GOP nomination against Trump, issued a statement questioning Trump's fitness as commander in chief.

"Statements like these make the world more dangerous and the United States less safe," said Graham, R-S.C. "I can only imagine how our allies in NATO, particularly the Baltic states, must feel after reading these comments from Mr. Trump. I'm 100 percent certain how Russian President Putin feels — he's a very happy man."

National Republican Congressional Committee Chair Greg Walden said Tuesday that in races around the country, the committee is banking that angst over global chaos and instability will lead voters to see the Obama administration's foreign policies as leadership failures and to embrace GOP candidates.

Yet Trump's NATO remarks provide an opening for Clinton and other Democrats to turn what has traditionally been a GOP strength into a target, according to Republican strategist Sara Fagen, former political director to President George W. Bush. Clinton, she said, may opt to speak more about Trump in her speech at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia next week than candidates typically do in their nomination acceptance speeches.

"If [Trump] doesn't kick this NATO issue down, not to mention other foreign policy gaffes he's made, you could see [Clinton] spend a disproportionate amount of time on Donald Trump and his fitness for office," Fagen said at a panel hosted by The Atlantic in Cleveland on Thursday.

Email: jgould@defensenews.com

Twitter: @reporterjoe

Joe Gould was the senior Pentagon reporter for Defense News, covering the intersection of national security policy, politics and the defense industry. He had previously served as Congress reporter.

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