This series tracks prominent Republicans, Trump associates and senior staff of previous Republican presidents now campaigning for Trump’s defeat. And shows why. This is episode 37. For earlier episodes, click on Alan Austin, above, and scroll down the page.
Click on the name for the source of the quote.
225. Paul Wolfowitz, under secretary for defence under George W H Bush and deputy secretary for defence under George W Bush.
“American strategy needs to protect our critical interests but at sustainable costs. By opening the door for Turkey to capture northern Syria, Mr. Trump committed what retired General Jack Keane called both a ‘betrayal’ and a ‘strategic blunder’.” [21 November, 2019]
226. Daniel Vajdich, former advisor to several Republican presidential candidates:
“It’s painful to think back to the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign, when candidate Trump insisted that Putin was a ‘strong leader.’ Trump seemed to have an odd definition of leadership; the fact that Putin has invaded neighboring countries, jailed or exiled his political opponents, and extinguished media freedom in Russia did not seem to factor into his evaluation of the Kremlin strongman.”
227. Stephen F. Hayes, pro-Republican commentator and writer:
“Trump lied repeatedly about his dealings with a hostile adversary while that hostile adversary worked to get him elected president. Trump has for years gone out of his way to excuse Vladimir Putin’s misdeeds. Why has Trump behaved this way? We don’t know.” [30 November, 2018]
228. Ron Paul, former Republican congressman for Texas and presidential candidate:
“In April, 2018, President Trump fired 100 Tomahawk missiles into Syria allegedly as punishment for a Syrian government chemical attack in Douma. Trump didn’t wait for a congressional declaration of war on Syria or even an authorization for a missile strike. In fact, he didn’t even wait for an investigation to find out what actually happened! He just decided to send missiles — at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars — into Syria.
“We are now finding out from whistleblowers on the UN team that investigated the alleged attack that the report blaming the Syrian government was falsified and that the whole ‘attack’ was nothing but a false flag operation.
“Is such unauthorized aggression against a country with which we are not at war not worth investigating as a potential high crime or misdemeanor?” [11 February 2020]
229. Rich Faucher, registered Republican in Virginia, 30-year military veteran:
“Donald Trump is unfit for office. He cannot be trusted by any military personnel because they all know that he does not care about us at all, or the people we defend. Period.” [September 2020]
And from the archives:
230. Michael Morell, daily intelligence briefer for George W Bush, later CIA associate deputy director:
“I think Trump has some special affection for Putin that is a result of something that we don’t fully understand. There are questions about financial ties, questions about compromising material. But there is some special bond here that seems to be overriding the interests of the United States of America.” [6 February, 2017]
231. David Nierenberg, veteran Republican operative, former finance chairman for Mitt Romney:
“Trump is the most dangerous major party presidential candidate in my lifetime, maybe in American history. His character, temperament, and behavior definitely are not presidential. He speaks positively about foreign dictators and acts like one himself.” [19 August, 2016]
232. Leon Wolf, editor of the conservative pro-Republican website RedState.com:
“Hillary is ideologically not where I am. But I do feel pretty confident that she would actually be a better president than Trump. I wouldn’t go to bed every night worrying about a mushroom cloud opening up somewhere in the world because of some insane thing Trump had done.” [3 May, 2016]
To be continued ...