Appearing on MSNBC Live With Stephanie Ruhle on Monday, Washington Post opinion writer and former Foreign Policy magazine editor David Rothkopf launched into an unhinged tirade against President Trump’s handling of global affairs, particularly the nuclear threat from North Korea: “President Trump has established himself in the minds of world leaders in a few ways. He’s a liar, he’s undependable, he doesn’t know what he’s doing.”
Rothkopf continued his tantrum by proclaiming: “He doesn’t control really what’s going on in his administration. He doesn’t read up on the issues. And he is cowed by bullies from Putin to the Middle East. And so, you know, when South Korea sees that, they have to be worried.”
After getting in his nasty attacks on the current commander-in-chief, the liberal Rothkopf admitted that even the Clinton administration had trouble dealing with North Korea:
I was talking to some people from the Clinton administration – I served in the Clinton administration – from their Defense Department. In the mid-1990s, they faced a crisis like this. And these liberal, thoughtful Democrats looked at the situation and the risk of North Korea getting nuclear weapons and they said, “You know, we ought to go to war.”
He concluded: “These were Democrats in the ‘90s. So you have to recognize that there are a lot of people who are not screaming right-wing maniacs who recognize that the threat of North Korea with nuclear weapons...”
After The Wall Street Journal’s Shelby Holliday pointed out that new White House Chief of Staff John Kelly “gives a lot of people confidence” on foreign policy matters, Rothkopf actually derided the credentials of the former four-star Marine Corps general:
Where is Chief of Staff Kelly? You know, that hasn’t changed, he’s – the President’s out of control. And on top of that, if you ask the people who served with Kelly when he was the commander at Southern Command, they would say respectable guy, has sacrificed a lot for his country, and not really very good at foreign policy, not a foreign policy specialist.
The biased discussion was brought to viewers by Angie's List, Land Rover, and TripAdvisor.
Here is a transcript of the August 7 exchange:
9:10 AM ET
(...)
STEPHANIE RUHLE: Then talk for a moment about a tweet you put out this weekend, a sarcastic tweet. Because you had mentioned South Korea. You were saying, “Great, South Korea completely depending their future on President Trump. They need President Trump.” You didn’t mean that.
DAVID ROTHKOPF [WASHINGTON POST]: No, I didn’t. I mean, look, President Trump has established himself in the minds of world leaders in a few ways. He’s a liar, he’s undependable, he doesn’t know what he’s doing. He doesn’t control really what’s going on in his administration. He doesn’t read up on the issues. And he is cowed by bullies from Putin to the Middle East. And so, you know, when South Korea sees that, they have to be worried.
But, you know, I’m going to add another level of worry to this. I was talking to some people from the Clinton administration – I served in the Clinton administration – from their Defense Department. In the mid-1990s, they faced a crisis like this. And these liberal, thoughtful Democrats looked at the situation and the risk of North Korea getting nuclear weapons and they said, “You know, we ought to go to war. We ought to go to war even if the casualties are several hundred thousand casualties in the Korean peninsula.” These were Democrats in the ‘90s.
So you have to recognize that there are a lot of people who are not screaming right-wing maniacs who recognize that the threat of North Korea with nuclear weapons, the ability of Kim Jong-Un to push a button and eliminate a city in the United States, is so grave that really dire measures may be essential.
(...)
SHELBY HOLLIDAY [WALL STREET JOURNAL]: So this is where General Kelly comes into play and I think gives a lot of people confidence. We interviewed Leon Panetta last week and he said, you know, there’s a crisis that could bubble over any minute and having someone with foreign policy experience, a marine, who's trained to think and act globally, could be helpful in the president’s ear.
RUHLE: If you give him the opportunity to lead. We’ve been hearing that for months, and the President himself said early on, “I defer to my generals.” And do you remember where the generals were? Was it on vacation? A week ago, two weeks ago, when the President decided to tweet out on a Wednesday morning, “Let’s talk transgender ban in the military.” So the question is, will the President actually empower his leadership to act as –
ROTHKOPF: And look at the President’s Twitter storm this morning. Where is Chief of Staff Kelly? You know, that hasn’t changed, he’s – the President’s out of control. And on top of that, if you ask the people who served with Kelly when he was the commander at Southern Command, they would say respectable guy, has sacrificed a lot for his country, and not really very good at foreign policy, not a foreign policy specialist.
HOLLIDAY: He understands the gravity of the commander-in-chief’s decisions. And so, if he can get in Trump’s ear and say, “You can’t tweet that and here’s why,” that would be a big step.
RUHLE: Good luck to that.
(...)
