Marine veteran says courage can help bridge America’s political divide

Rye Barcott used a Sunday television appearance to argue that political courage still has a place in Washington, even as trust in the capital remains deeply strained. His organization, With Honor, says it has helped elect more than 100 people in the past eight years, and 50 of them now serve in Congress.

Barcott, identified by CBS as a Marine veteran, the co-founder and CEO of With Honor, and the author of Courage Can Save Us, said he launched the group about eight years ago with the late David Gergen and another Marine he served with during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. The organization recruits and trains veterans who pledge to serve with civility, integrity and courage, including the courage to work across party lines. That pitch lands in a Congress still defined by hard partisan incentives, even as Barcott framed service as a practical answer to institutional drift.

His book, Courage Can Save Us: Ten Extraordinary Americans and the Fight for Our Future, profiles five Democrats and five Republicans, all but one with military service. The exception had FBI experience. Barcott said he chose people serving in a difficult political moment to examine where courage comes from in both military life and political life, and he said he wrote the book principally for students. He defined courage as taking risk in service of something larger than yourself and the common good.

The broader context was hard to miss. Margaret Brennan cited Pew polling showing only 17 percent of Americans trust the government in Washington to do what is right all or most of the time, while CBS polling has found younger Americans anxious about their futures. Against that backdrop, Barcott’s message was less about lofty rhetoric than about rebuilding legitimacy through conduct, discipline and bipartisan coalitions that can survive beyond one vote or one cycle.

That same logic shaped With Honor Action’s push on Ukraine. Two days before the interview, the group praised House passage of the Ukraine Support Act and said the vote showed American leadership on the world stage did not have to be partisan. On June 5, Barcott joined bipartisan members of Congress and Ukrainian Ambassador Olga Stefanishyna on Capitol Hill to celebrate the vote. With Honor said a discharge petition reached 218 signatures on May 13, forcing consideration of H.R. 2913.

The organization said it has worked with members of the For Country Caucus since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, and pointed to earlier wins, including 2024 legislation to seize Russian assets for Ukraine’s rebuilding and a 2025 law to help identify and bring home Ukrainian children abducted to Russia or Russian-occupied territory. In a Congress where party loyalty often punishes compromise, Barcott’s case was that veterans can still model a different kind of politics, one built on duty, credibility and the willingness to act when the cost of inaction keeps rising.