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Carl Bernstein: From pandering to Putin to abusing allies and ignoring his own advisers, Trump's phone calls alarm US officials
CNN ^ | 06/29/2020 | Carl Bernstein

Posted on 06/29/2020 6:00:24 PM PDT by SeekAndFind

In hundreds of highly classified phone calls with foreign heads of state, President Donald Trump was so consistently unprepared for discussion of serious issues, so often outplayed in his conversations with powerful leaders like Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Erdogan, and so abusive to leaders of America's principal allies, that the calls helped convince some senior US officials -- including his former secretaries of state and defense, two national security advisers and his longest-serving chief of staff -- that the President himself posed a danger to the national security of the United States, according to White House and intelligence officials intimately familiar with the contents of the conversations.

The calls caused former top Trump deputies -- including national security advisers H.R. McMaster and John Bolton, Defense Secretary James Mattis, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, and White House chief of staff John Kelly, as well as intelligence officials -- to conclude that the President was often "delusional," as two sources put it, in his dealings with foreign leaders. The sources said there was little evidence that the President became more skillful or competent in his telephone conversations with most heads of state over time. Rather, he continued to believe that he could either charm, jawbone or bully almost any foreign leader into capitulating to his will, and often pursued goals more attuned to his own agenda than what many of his senior advisers considered the national interest.

These officials' concerns about the calls, and particularly Trump's deference to Putin, take on new resonance with reports the President may have learned in March that Russia had offered the Taliban bounties to kill US troops in Afghanistan -- and yet took no action.

(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 2020election; carlbernstein; clintonnonnews; cnn; dnctalkingpoint; dnctalkingpoints; election2020; foreignaffairs; media; mediawingofthednc; msm; partisanmediashills; presstitutes; putin; russia; smearmachine; trump
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1 posted on 06/29/2020 6:00:24 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

This crap is way past being old.


2 posted on 06/29/2020 6:01:54 PM PDT by Gahanna Bob
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To: SeekAndFind

According to Bernstein:

* Trump regularly bullied and demeaned the leaders of America’s principal allies, especially two women: telling Prime Minister Theresa May of the United Kingdom she was weak and lacked courage

* He told German Chancellor Angela Merkel that she was “stupid.”

* Trump incessantly boasted to his fellow heads of state, including Saudi Arabia’s autocratic royal heir Mohammed bin Salman and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, about his own wealth, genius, “great” accomplishments as President, and the “idiocy” of his Oval Office predecessors,

* , Trump took special delight in trashing former Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama and suggested that dealing directly with him — Trump — would be far more fruitful than during previous administrations.

For Bernstein, The full, detailed picture drawn by CNN’s sources of Trump’s phone calls with foreign leaders is consistent with the basic tenor and some substantive elements of a limited number of calls described by former national security adviser John Bolton in his book, “The Room Where It Happened.” But the calls described to CNN cover a far longer period than Bolton’s tenure, are much more comprehensive — and seemingly more damning — in their sweep.


3 posted on 06/29/2020 6:02:55 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

If it is on CNN then a 99% chance it is a lie.


4 posted on 06/29/2020 6:02:57 PM PDT by MtnClimber (For photos of Colorado scenery and wildlife, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Trump is the least of my worries.

I’m watching the Democrats and most GOP capitulating to a communist overthrow of MY country and it’s pissing me off!

What do you think about that Bernstein?!


5 posted on 06/29/2020 6:04:02 PM PDT by Skywise
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To: SeekAndFind

Again with “according to anonymous sources” and again on the current “Russia” theme. The Left’s marching orders went out to Bernstein as well.


6 posted on 06/29/2020 6:04:10 PM PDT by Wuli (Get)
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To: MtnClimber

RE: If it is on CNN then a 99% chance it is a lie.

Isn’t Carl Bernstein of WaterGate fame supposed to be the “gold standard” ( note the quotes ) for investigative journalism?


7 posted on 06/29/2020 6:05:03 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: Gahanna Bob

From what I’ve heard, JFK also alarmed intelligence officials.


8 posted on 06/29/2020 6:05:41 PM PDT by rintintin (qu)
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To: Gahanna Bob

Yep. Same crap from the same lying propagandists


9 posted on 06/29/2020 6:05:58 PM PDT by A_Former_Democrat (See St George's Rap Sheet . . . TAG PedoJoe with "DEFUND the POLICE")
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To: MtnClimber

If highly classified phone calls have been leaked then the leaker is a felon and a traitor who richly deserves the death penalty.


10 posted on 06/29/2020 6:09:52 PM PDT by nhbob1
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To: SeekAndFind

“Tell Vladimir that I’ll have more flexibility after the election.” Now that’s some world class pandering to Putin.


11 posted on 06/29/2020 6:10:03 PM PDT by Orosius
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To: SeekAndFind

Bernstein takes the all-time record for mercilessly stretching out his fifteen minutes of fame.


12 posted on 06/29/2020 6:12:25 PM PDT by Ouchthatonehurt
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To: SeekAndFind

A bunch of dem lies.


13 posted on 06/29/2020 6:13:07 PM PDT by ully2
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To: SeekAndFind

Bernstein seems to think the president is elected to take orders from the permanent bureaucracy. He’s wrong. There’s also this idea that “allies” who stick it to America are doing it for our own good. Germany spends less than the 2% target set for NATO countries. It’s doing a gas pipeline with Russia. But Bernstein’s insinuation is that this “ally” is being slighted in order to cater to Russia’s interests. In reality, it would be in Russia’s interests for Germany’s defense spending to be kept low and for the Russian gas pipeline to be completed.


14 posted on 06/29/2020 6:13:52 PM PDT by Zhang Fei (My dad had a Delta 88. That was a car. It was like driving your living room.)
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To: MtnClimber

yep. At least Bernstein could write the drivel by himself.


15 posted on 06/29/2020 6:14:00 PM PDT by PhiloBedo (You gotta roll with the punches, and get with what's real.)
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To: SeekAndFind

It’s more Russia, Russia, Russia...they understand that about half of the American public are imbeciles and will believe this nonsense.


16 posted on 06/29/2020 6:14:06 PM PDT by LongWayHome
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To: SeekAndFind

Carl Bernstein: Russia probe feels ‘worse than Watergate’

https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-met-carl-bernstein-trump-1103-chicago-inc-20171101-story.html

Carl Bernstein: Russia probes are ‘closing in’

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPZ7gcoYMCE

Mueller Draft Report Says Trump ‘Helped Putin Destabilize the United States’, Watergate Journalist Says

https://www.newsweek.com/mueller-report-trump-helped-putin-destabilize-us-watergate-journalist-1289541


17 posted on 06/29/2020 6:15:38 PM PDT by God luvs America (63.5 million pay no income tax and vote for DemoKrats...)
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To: SeekAndFind

Bernstein is full of Shiite, like Obama and Hillary


18 posted on 06/29/2020 6:15:51 PM PDT by Jan_Sobieski (Sanctification)
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To: PhiloBedo

Nothing like old school drivel :)


19 posted on 06/29/2020 6:16:19 PM PDT by xp38
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To: SeekAndFind

Bernstein’s jealous because Woodward got all the accolades.


20 posted on 06/29/2020 6:18:16 PM PDT by Gay State Conservative (The Rats Just Can't Get Over The Fact That They Lost A Rigged Election!)
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