One of the characteristics of living in this moment of time, is that historic events, such as yesterday’s White House press conference can be seen by tens of millions of people as it unfolds, with no edits, do overs or commentary. What you are now reading is very much a “diary” -- meaning the raw responses of an individual, that while often private, in this case is meant to be shared, and possibly amended by the comments of others who watched the same pivotal interaction between President Donald J. Trump and a broad sampling of journalists.
The title I gave to this Dailykos Diary is a logical hypothetical extension of the response by a reporter in a dialog with Trump who asked (at 44min 50 sec) “What do you expect to say to President Xi and President Putin when you meet with them later this month? He Responded:
….. I HAVE A GOOD RELATIONSHIP WITH THEM BOTH. I KNOW PRESIDENT XI BETTER, BUT I THINK I HAVE A GOOD RELATIONSHIP WITH BOTH. I THINK I HAD A VERY GOOD MEETING AND RUSSIA -- MEETING AND RUSSIA. I HAD A VERY GOOD MEETING WITH PRESIDENT PUTIN. A LOT WAS DISCUSSED ABOUT SECURITY AND SYRIA AND UKRAINE. ABOUT THE FACT THAT PRESIDENT OBAMA ALLOWED A LARGE PART OF UKRAINE TO BE TAKEN. RIGHT NOW, YOU HAVE SUBMARINES OFF THAT PARCEL..”
The reporter interrupted with: “THAT WAS PRESIDENT PUTIN WHO ANNEXED CRIMEA, SIR”
Trump replied with, “THAT WAS PRESIDENT OBAMA. IT WAS DURING PRESIDENT OBAMA’S REGIME. IT WAS NOT DURING ME. RIGHT? WHO ALLOWED IT TO HAPPEN. IT HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH ME
Talking over the previous dialogue, Reporter restated: (45min : 20 sec ) BUT IT WAS PRESIDENT PUTIN WHO DID THE ANNEXATION. TRUMP REPLIED: NO, NO, IT WAS PRESIDENT OBAMA WHO ALLOWED IT TO HAPPEN, IT HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH ME.
(full video of interaction at link above)
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The above interchange represents less than one percent of the Press Conference, yet is a microcosm of this event that I see as turning point in what I hope will be only a footnote in history; but from this perspective in time is unknowable whether the allusion to WWII in my title will be tragically prescient.
This is the link to the complete video of the press conference supplied by CSPAN. The entire transcript is broken down by interaction between Trump and the various reporters. There were moments of argumentation, where multiple people were talking at the same time, which were difficult to transcribe.
The issues raised during this press conference, including Trump’s avoiding announcing that the firing of his Attorney General had been placed in motion as he spoke, are complex and worthy of extensive analysis and discussion. I chose to focus on this short interchange as it conveyed in a few seconds the mentality and persona of this individual with arguably more power to destroy than anyone other human being in the course of history.
Link to Wikipedia article of the actual steps taken by the UN and President Obama to reverse the annexation of Crimea