John Kerry Statement on Trump and NATO

[MBS]

http://thehill.com/policy/international/396482-kerry-condemns-trumps-nato-rhetoric-it-was-disgraceful-and-destructive

Former Secretary of State John Kerry slammed President Trump on Wednesday over the president's comments hammering allies about their contributions to NATO at the group's annual summit. Kerry, the United States' top diplomat for President Obama's second term, issued a blistering statement on Twitter condemning Trump's remarks to NATO members at the summit in Brussels, Belgium, calling them "strange" and "counterproductive.""I've never seen a president say anything as strange or counterproductive as President Trump's harangue against NATO and Germany. It was disgraceful, destructive, and flies in the face of actual American interests," Kerry said.

The letter itself:

Link to tweet

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[C_U_L8R]

1. That's a true Secretary of State speaking. Thank you John Kerry.

Pompeo should be ashamed of himself for just sitting there and enabling such bullshit.
Trump is such a pariah.

[Ohiogal]

2. Thank you John Kerry. That needed to be said!

And thank you especially for calling out the ostriches in the GOP who do and say nothing and continue to enable this embarrassing train wreck!

[Laf.La.Dem.]

3. Too many WORDS for Trump to read!!

[karynnj]

4. Great statement that spells out the damage done

I never thought an American president would question the benefit of NATO.

[MBS]

5. Shocking, isn't it?

And - well-deplorable.
So glad to see Sec. Kerry stand up and speak the truth, fiercely and urgently.
Really looking forward to his memoir.


(A little off-topic for the John Kerry group, but, on the NATO, damage, and urgency fronts, it's worth thinking about as Trump heads off to his tete-a-tete with his buddy Putin. Somewhat similarly to Kerry, it's notable that the usually calm/sober/quintessential public servant John Brennan has not been pulling his punches, either, with his latest urgent tweet stating that history will record that Trump was one of the most disastrous figures of the 21st century. Jonathan Chait has brought up the fact that Brennan has been visibly, profoundly shaken ever since he received the full briefing in Dec 2016 on the connections between the Trump campaign, Putin, and the 2016 election. There is something really dark behind all of this, and I hope to God that (a) we will learn the full story and (b) everyone involved - not just Trump, but, by this point a whole slew of Trump associates and many many people in the Republican party apparatus is given the punishment they deserve and (c) we survive this awful time. Worth reading the Chait piece, which traces the long history of Trump's connections to Russia, and of his long hatred - and misunderstanding - of multilateral trade agreements, NATO, etc: http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/06/the-british-russia-collusion-scandal-is-breaking-wide-open.html)