Another
prominent Republican questions Trump
I have bolded and highlighted this Republicans' words - they are very disturbing.
TUESDAY, JAN 31, 2017 09:15 AM EST
“It will not get better”: Former Bush
administration official has a warning about President Trump’s administration
Ex-Condoleezza Rice aide Eliot A. Cohen also has strong words for
conservatives who are working with Trump
Yet another former official for President
George W. Bush has gone on the record criticizing President Donald Trump — this
time it’s Eliot A. Cohen, who served as a counselor to former secretary of
state Condoleezza Rice from 2007 to 2009.
Trump’s first week as
president has already been marred by a “dark and divisive inaugural
speech, extraordinary attacks on a free press, a visit to the CIA that
dishonored a monument to anonymous heroes who paid the ultimate price, and now
an attempt to ban selected groups of Muslims,” Cohen wrote in The Atlantic. He pointed out that “because the problem is
one of temperament and character, it will not get better.”
Cohen predicted that Trump’s poor character
and choice of advisers will “probably end in calamity — substantial domestic
protest and violence, a breakdown of international economic relationships, the
collapse of major alliances, or perhaps one or more new wars (even with China)
on top of the ones we already have.” Cohen continued, “It will not be
surprising in the slightest if his term ends not in four or in eight years, but
sooner, with impeachment or removal under the 25th Amendment. The sooner
Americans get used to these likelihoods, the better.”
He went on to condemn his conservative friends
who are thinking of working with or even for the dangerous new president.
“For the community of conservative thinkers
and experts, and more importantly, conservative politicians, this is a testing
time,” Cohen wrote. “Either you stand up for your principles and for what you
know is decent behavior, or you go down, if not now, then years from now, as a
coward or opportunist. Your reputation will never recover, nor should it.”
That said, Cohen ended his article on an
optimistic note: “In the end, however, he will fail,” Cohen predicted. “He will
fail because however shrewd his tactics are, his strategy is terrible — The New
York Times, the CIA, Mexican Americans, and all the others he has attacked are
not going away. With every act he makes new enemies for himself
and strengthens their commitment; he has his followers, but he gains no new
friends.
Added Cohen: “He will
fail because he cannot corrupt the courts, and because even the most timid
senator sooner or later will say ‘enough.’ He will fail most of all because at
the end of the day most Americans, including most of those who voted for him,
are decent people who have no desire to live in an American version of Tayyip
Erdogan’s Turkey, or Viktor Orban’s Hungary, or Vladimir Putin’s Russia.”
Cohen is not the first
former Bush administration official to speak out against Trump. In an opinion
piece for The New York Times posted earlier this month, former chief White House ethics lawyer
Richard W. Painter slammed the president’s numerous conflicts of interest:
“He continues to refuse to release his
tax returns, even though many of his cabinet nominees will have to disclose
theirs in order to get confirmed by senators skeptical of, among other things,
foreign business entanglements,” Painter wrote. “He also did not announce a
divestment of ownership interest in his businesses, even though this is a step
that his own cabinet appointees will have to take in order to comply with a
federal conflict of interest law. Instead, Mr. Trump will simply turn
management of the businesses over to a trustee chosen by him, and to two of his
sons, Donald Jr. and Eric. This is not a separation at all, and from a conflict
of interest vantage point, it won’t work.”
Similarly Lezlee
Westine, who served as White House director of public liaison and deputy
assistant to the president under Bush, endorsed Hillary Clinton in August. Although she didn’t directly attack Trump,
her reasons for endorsing Clinton seemed to indicate that she was
concerned about Trump’s lack of experience.
“Our nation faces a unique set of challenges
that require steady and experienced leadership,” Westine said. “That is
why today I am personally supporting Hillary Clinton. She has the expertise and
commitment to American values to grow the economy, create jobs and protect
America at home and abroad.”
The former political director for president
Ronald Reagan, Frank Lavin, returned to the themes of Trump’s character when
endorsing Clinton that same month.
“Trump falls short in terms of the character
and behavior needed to perform as president,” Lavin wrote. “This defect is
crippling and ensures he would fail in office.”
Matthew
Rozsa is a breaking news writer for Salon. He holds an MA in History from
Rutgers University-Newark and his work has appeared in Mic, Quartz and MSNBC.
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