Trump's 60 Minutes interview once again reveals gross ignorance and wild dishonesty

[babylonsister]

https://www.vox.com/2018/10/14/17975644/trump-60-minutes-interview-transcript

Trump’s 60 Minutes interview once again reveals gross ignorance and wild dishonesty
Little new ground was broken in an interview that was both bizarre and bizarrely familiar.
By Matthew Yglesias@[e-mail] Oct 14, 2018, 9:02pm EDT


President Trump trusts Kim Jong Un but not American climate scientists. He knows more about NATO than Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis. He thinks the European Union was created to take advantage of America on trade. And he isn’t sure whether or not Vladimir Putin is involved in assassinations.

In short, his sit-down interview with 60 Minutes’ Lesley Stahl revealed the president of the United States to be grossly dishonest, woefully ill-informed, and congenitally incapable of admitting error or demonstrating any kind of moral or intellectual growth.

snip//

Trump is unfit, and we are stuck with him

Perhaps the most telling moments in the whole interview were two separate remarks about Secretary of Defense James Mattis. At one point, Trump, when asked about reports that Mattis had tried to explain the value of NATO to him, snapped, “I think I know more about it than he does.”

Later, he explained that Mattis is “sort of a Democrat, if you want to know the truth.”

Mattis is, of course, not a Democrat. He is a career military officer and defense hawk who was fired by Barack Obama’s administration for his unwillingness to get on board with their diplomatic opening to Iran. That, in turn, is how he ended up working for Trump.

But Trump refuses to listen to anyone about anything, even subject-matter experts who clearly know more than he does. Instead, he concocts a bizarre mirror universe in which Mattis holding a very normal Republican Party view about NATO becomes evidence that he’s a crypto-Democrat. Which in turn is a reminder that while Republicans in Congress support Trump because he largely advocates an orthodox Republican agenda, it’s far from a perfectly orthodox one.

Indeed, if Trump were drummed out of office in favor of someone less ignorant, mean-spirited, dishonest, corrupt, and arrogant, he would be replaced by someone who hewed closer to congressional Republicans’ policy views, not further. But Trump is right that at this point, he is the Republican Party and the Republican Party is him. If Republicans lose the House in a few weeks, there may finally be some kind of check on his conduct and oversight of the government, but he’ll still be president and still have no idea what he’s doing. All we can do is hope America’s luck holds up.

[Moostache]

1. Astounding how ignorant the bastard is...

He is the least informed individual in Washington, which in and of itself is some feat, but the fact that man holds power in this nation is testament to just how far and fast a nation can be pulled asunder. Easily the most infuriating thing about him is his incessant need to make literally EVERYTHING about him in some way. Got news for you Trumpy...the day you die, you'll be the toast of the world and two days after that, no one will ever say another kind word about you. You will pass into history as a warning, a message to future generations to assiduously avoid. You're a total joke and everyone is laughing AT you, NOT WITH you.

[Scurrilous]

2. K&R