"Wow . . . I'm absolutely surprised by that answer . . . Are you sure? . . . Are we talking about the same person?" That was Mika Brzezinski's stunned response after her attempt to recruit retired General and former CIA Director Michael Hayden into her campaign against Ben Carson blew up in her face on today's Morning Joe.
Referring to Carson, Mika asked Hayden "are you concerned that there's a front runner whose foreign policy sensibilities seem to lack, to say the least?" But instead of playing along with Mika's leading question, Hayden, while acknowledging that Carson lacked foreign policy experience, replied that based on a long conversation he had with Carson, all of his foreign policy instincts are "right." He said Carson asked "good questions" and is a "well-meaning, serious, bright man."
Mika learned the hard way the lesson drilled into cross-examing lawyers: never ask a witness a question to which you don't know the answer!
The video is worth watching if only for the array of Mika's multiple facial expressions of stunned amazement! Look for Mika's picture in the dictionary next to "gobsmacked."
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: General, while we have you and while we're on the topic of presidential politics and I hope you don't take a pass on this, I hope I'm not putting you in a bad position. But we have one candidate, Ben Carson, talking about China being in Syria among other things that he said. He's answered questions about foreign policy that I can't even understand exactly what he's saying. Are you concerned that there is a front-runner whose foreign policy sensibilities seem to lack, to say the least? How would you characterize it?MICHAEL HAYDEN: I wouldn't say sensibilities. I must admit, I had one lengthy phone call with Dr. Carson bout two months ago. His instincts are all right. But this is a database with which he is very unfamiliar. I think what he was trying to say, Mika, and I watched your piece on this yesterday.
I think he was trying to say that when we're absent from the playing field, we leave a vacuum in which other powers may enter. In this particular case, the Russians are there. I would characterize the Chinese as merely interested. So I think he overstated the data in that point. But again, it's more the details than the broad instinct.
MIKA: And when you had that time with him, did you gather that he had the ability to wrap his head around these issues?
HAYDEN: Mika, good questions, honest dialogue. And I must admit what you see publicly is what you get personally. A well-meaning, serious, bright man, trying to understand things which his life experience really hasn't given him understanding about in the past.
MIKA: Wow. All right. General Michael Hayden, thank you very much. It's always good to have you on the show. I'm surprised by that--I'm absolutely surprised by that answer. But I, I really, that's not somebody that we take as a respected source. Are you sure? You don't want [a redo]? I'm sorry --
DONNY DEUTSCH: That wasn't the answer she was looking for!
MIKA: I'm really con-- With all due respect.
HAYDEN: I can only report what I heard on the phone. Look, he asked the right questions. He gave me a chance to talk and explain it. He had good follow on questions. I'm just describing what --
MIKA: Are we talking about the same person?
