Former Mattis Aide: Trump veered from topic to topic like a squirrel caught in traffic

[kpete]

Former Mattis Aide Describes What It's Like Trying To Brief Trump
"All the president's answers were simplistic and ad hoc, shooting from the hip on issues of global importance," the former Navy pilot said.


He asked Snodgrass how it felt, watching the attacks on Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman by the president and his allies.

"Anytime you go after someone's characterization of their service based on the fact you don't like what they're saying is pretty dangerous," Snodgrass said. "

Berman read from the book:

Many times during Secretary Tillerson's tenure, reporters would claim that he thought his boss was an idiot and Tillerson would deny it publicly but there was no doubt among most observers in the room that day that Tillerson was thinking exactly that. Both men, Mattis and Tillerson, were despondent. We had just witnessed a meeting with Trump up close and personal. Now we knew why access was controlled so tightly. For the remainder of the meeting, President Trump veered from topic to topic like a squirrel caught in traffic, dashing one way and then another. All the president's answers were simplistic and ad hoc, shooting from the hip on issues of global importance.

Hoo boy.

https://crooksandliars.com/2019/10/former-mattis-aide-describes-what-its

[gratuitous]

1. NOBODY in the room could say . . .

"Sir? FOCUS, fer crissakes. This is important." Which is why the Trump administration is a raging dumpster fire rolling through a fireworks factory.

[Guilded Lilly]

2. To those of us who have been paying attention...

we’ve known this megalomaniac man is an arrogant, empty-brained Cretin with NO business being anywhere near a position of power or authority.

We’ve agonized. But I’ve agonized more over all the adults in the room allowing this wretched fool to remain in power. Enabling, protecting, lying for and endangering our country to the point that we haven’t a clue when the damage will be repaired. For greed, for personal gain. But certainly not for any love or respect for our nation.

I blame them more.

[brush]

4. I completely agree. They've put loyalty to that incompetent a-hole above...

Last edited Wed Oct 30, 2019, 12:24 PM - Edit history (1)

loyalty to the country. Are there no other jobs they can get? Are their prospects so dim that they have no other options but to protect that imposter?

[vlyons]

6. More importantly, his sycophant enablers haveno honor, no virtue

An honorable person would A: never ever work for Trump, or B: thinking they could do some good, would resign quickly, realizing the job was hopeless -- just like the boss.

[Kaleva]

9. What would you suggest they do that would remove Trump from office?

If you think that the situation is extremely grave, I'd suggest you do more then post about it on a political forum.

People like Martin Luther King and his followers put their lives on the line fighting for what they believed in. We make angry sounding posts on DU. Maybe we make phone calls and send e-mails or attend a candlelight vigil on a weekend when the weather is good. That's about it.

[Guilded Lilly]

15. You know nothing about my advocacy outside a political...

message board, do you?

No, you don’t.
That’s about it.

[Botany]

11. Trump doesn't even have a rudimentary knowledge of history and governments.

Did you know that Poland is country and that America has had a relationship with
Italy that goes back over a thousand years?

BTW we both captured and killed al Baghdadi.

Link to tweet

[EndlessWire]

23. Well said

But, I blame them equally.

[Guilded Lilly]

27. OK :) I can certainly embrace that! Equal opportunity BLAME.

[Mike 03]

3. Per Bob Woodward's book

Mattis and company tried all sorts of things to reduce the amount of data the president had to pay attention to, including things like single sheets of paper, index cards and eventually bullet points. All failed.

[Siwsan]

5. His cognitive skills are compromised, and rapidly declining

No doubt the stress and anger are facilitating this decline. Don't get me wrong - I know he's always been an arrogant, entitled, 'know it all' narcissistic jerk. Now he's all of that, PLUS rapidly developing dementia.

[unblock]

8. i'm not so sure.

his skills, or more accurately, his *interest* in the topics and stuff of governance is on the decline, from a very low starting point.

but his ability to hurl insults and spin tall tales and so on continues. i'm not so sure there's a cognitive decline. he just seems a frustrated that it's not working as well as it used to be working.

[Siwsan]

10. I'm looking at lots of his behaviors that, from my experience, are setting off alarm bells

I've dealt with forms of dementia, in my family, and so much of his reactions and behavior are far too familiar.

[The_REAL_Ecumenist]

16. EXACTLY....Those of us who have had the unimaginably HORRIFIC & sad

experience of watching the decline of loved ones & friends. You know as I do that when people like us have seen the symptoms, you recognise it when presented with the chump's "gaffes', misspellings, the increasing paranoia. bellicosity, his grandiosity, losing his line of thought midway through a sentence, declining sophistication of his vocabulary, the numerous vids of his OBVIOUS confusion, (especially the one where he was in Israel, not ONLY walking away from netanyahu BUT from the limo. He had to be herded back by his Israeli twin), his rambling & unintelligible comments & his STRONG family history of dementia, (his daddy fred died from it).

Most importantly, it ALSO explains the bullshit letter "written" by the Manhattan "md", who admitted tht the letter, (REPLETE with words tht NO dr would ever use), that it was dictated to him by none other than chump, while his limo waited. Ronny Jackson has some 'splaining to do too.

[Siwsan]

17. He needs to go through an intense psych/neuro work up at a civilian facility

No more letting any military physician do these exams. From the 'glowing' appraisements of the last two doctors, it's obvious they are doing the "job" assigned to them, and NOT doing the work they are trained to do.

[The_REAL_Ecumenist]

18. WORD. I can't prove it YET but I believe that he received a Dx BEFORE he "announced"

his run. As I've told so many, his unsuitability was there for all the world to see & why NOONE , (as far as I can recall) made a stink about the fact that he REFUSED to release both his TAX RETURNS & ANY PROOF of his Medical suitability, I'll never know. How he was allowed to continue to run FOLLOWING that BS Dr's Note, after that QUACK admitted that CHUMP DICTATED it to him, while his limo waited outside, I'll never know...I believe that the next MAJOR implosion will be the BLACKMAILING that chump used to get people, ( meaning the pubs), in line. It explains why "people" like Leningrad lindsey & the rest of the slobbering maniacs have suddenly become his leading cheerleaders.

This Sh!tshow is nowhere near the final crescendo, trust me. As I've been saying from DAY 1, (i.e., 11.16.2016), ALL the nonsense that Graham, McConnell, etc, is bubbling to the surface & just like a cheap Pressure Cooker, it'll EXPLODE all over the SENATE, the HOUSE, republican MAYORS, LOBBYISTS, GOVERNORS. Many of the things we've been saying since 2001 will not only be proven but even darker bullshit will come bubbling out like slime mold.

As an aside, I've been keeping my fingers crossed that the reagan library BURNS THE FUCK UP...TO THE GROUND!! That's a stain on my NATIVE state. A girl can dream...

[Siwsan]

19. I'm expecting they will find him wandering the Rose Garden, wearing just y-fronts and slippers

We had to keep a close watch on my mother, when she was heading into the last stages of Alzheimer's.

[The_REAL_Ecumenist]

20. Yep. I believe that it's already happened, which would also explain why he's so

often missing in action at points when he SHOULD be addressing the nation. This is a f*cking nightmare.

[EndlessWire]

24. I'm not as charitable

Let him be cared for by the prison doctor.

[Siwsan]

25. Who would LIKELY be a civilian, so I concur

[Haggis for Breakfast]

26. Maybe if we're lucky,

he'll get the same MD that thought Epstein should be removed from the suicide watch.

Remember what happened to him . . .

[Baked Potato]

7. Two things...

We are seeing how much nearly unlimited power the President ultimately has, and Americans should damn sure be more careful in the future.

And, this dude is ON something.

[The_REAL_Ecumenist]

21. ABSOLUTELY! I have alot of family & friends In NYC & from what they've told me

that as far back as the 80's, it was an open secret that he was a cokehead...

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

12. This is hardly breaking news.

Even before he was inaugurated it was known that he wouldn't read any briefing paper longer than one page, and that one page had to be mainly bullet points and some charts and maybe a picture or two.

The squirrel caught in traffic is a new image.

[Raftergirl]

13. Trump

Is a fucking moron. And that’s the nicest thing I’ll say about him - ever.

[MartyTheGreek]

14. He never took the brass serious anyway...

He knows more than the Generals remember?

When will the honest retired Generals say what they really know. What's the score anyway? Putin 5 US 0? How many times did he not listen to the Generals?

Tillerson has yet to explain the oil deals that were to be made!

When you don't have brilliance, baffle then with bullshit! Trumps way of holding a meeting or the typical praise me meeting!

[Mc Mike]

22. Hence all the bankruptcies and crimes, while he was a 'businessman'.