Fox News contributor, frequent Special Report panelist, and syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer was given his own segment on Tuesday night’s Fox News Channel (FNC) show in light of the Islamic terror attacks in Brussels and he used his airtime to berate President Obama for his “ideological holiday trip” to communist Cuba “while the world burns.”
Further, he chalked the President’s Cuba trip in light of the Brussels attacks to the latest illustration of the disconnect between “the real world” and Obama’s “fantasy world he inhabits where Cuba is of some geopolitical significance.”
Host Bret Baier brought Krauthammer on just after the 6:14 p.m. Eastern mark and he first mentioned that the President devoted only “51 seconds of his speech today in Havana” to the horrifying events hours later across the Atlantic.
During that speech, Krauthammer opined that “the whole story of his presidency and its foreign policy was seen in the split-screen” with “video footage of the attack in Belgium” that marked “the real world” on one end with “Obama in the fantasy world he inhabits where Cuba is of some geopolitical significance” at the other.
The best-selling author quipped that Cuba could be wiped out “in a volcanic eruption like Santorini, nobody would notice geopolitically, but Obama had to go cause this is legacy.”
“This is settling the Cold War arguments of the academic left of Obama’s Columbia University days. The people who worship the Cuban Revolution, the Sandinistas. Obama had his picture taken in front of a relief of Che Guevara, which sort of stated his worldview of his adolescent days and now he does it as President,” he exclaimed.
Referring to the previous block in which Baier spoke to Republican Congressman Mike McCaul (Tex.), Krauthammer described McCaul’s statements about the state of the fight against Islamic extremism in Europe as “hair-raising stuff that the Belgians are completely outmanned.”
Before Baier briefly asked Krauthammer what he thought about the President’s decision to still attend a baseball game in Cuba with Cuban President Raul Castro, the conservative pundit concluded:
The Europeans have no way of tracking and that we are completely in the blind. We don’t know what we don't know. That's the real world. Obama calls it the JV team. He pretends it’s contained and controlled. It is not. Instead he does this sort of ideological holiday trip in Cuba while the world burns.
The relevant portion of the transcript from FNC’s Special Report with Bret Baier on March 22 can be found below.
FNC’s Special Report with Bret Baier
March 22, 2016
6:14 p.m. EasternBRET BAIER: Charles, he obviously topped off that speech with a statement about the attacks and how the world needs to be unified. This trip is being overshadowed now by the events in Brussels.
CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER: Well, Obama gave the terror bombing 51 seconds of his speech today in Havana. I thought the whole story of his presidency and its foreign policy was seen in the split-screen. On one side, you had the video footage of the attack in Belgium. This is the real world and on the other side was Obama in the fantasy world he inhabits where Cuba is of some geopolitical significance. In his mind but none the real world. If Cuba disappeared tomorrow in a volcanic eruption like Santorini, nobody would notice geopolitically, but Obama had to go cause this is legacy. This is settling the Cold War arguments of the academic left of Obama’s Columbia University days. The people who worship the Cuban Revolution, the Sandinistas. Obama had his picture taken in front of a relief of Che Guevara, which sort of stated his worldview of his adolescent days and now he does it as president. On the one hand is the real threat to the world. You heard from Chairman McCaul, this is hair raising stuff that the Belgians are completely outmanned. The Europeans have no way of tracking and that we are completely in the blind. We don’t know what we don't know. That's the real world. Obama calls it the JV team. He pretends it’s contained and controlled. It is not. Instead he does this sort of ideological holiday trip in Cuba while the world burns.
BAIER: Quickly, there is criticism, obviously, from Republicans about, you know whether he should have stopped this trip short. Whether he shouldn’t have to the baseball game today and the image of all that and doing the wave at the baseball game. Your thoughts on all of that?
KRAUTHAMMER: I don't think a president should cut short his trip because it is sort of handing a victory to the terrorists. Moreover, the trip to Argentina is important cause Argentina I an important country and it’s just had a change of regime to a favorable American one, but he should never have been on the trip in the first place and he needs to make a speech about world terrorism and what he's going to do.
BAIER: Charles, as always, thank you.
