President Donald Trump's encounter with French President Emmanuel Macron was already labeled as humiliating for Americans, but things got worse as the House Intelligence Committee released the report detailing at least three crimes by the president that are impeachable while he was at the NATO meeting.
Robin Wright, a distinguished fellow at the Wilson Center, explained how shameful and embarrassing it is for the United States.
"The thing that strikes me, this began with foreign policy and Donald Trump today is in London celebrating 70 years of western cohesion and unity on issues that have to do with democracy," said Wright. "How embarrassing is it for him? How much does this undermine not only his ability to conduct foreign policy but America's credibility? It's not just shameful in terms of the way it plays out among us, it has repercussions for our ability not just during the Trump presidency but I think down the road that the United States would stoop to the level of trying to compromise the safety of a country that's on the front line with Russia militarily for his own political gain. That's just -- just unprecedented when it comes to American history."
CNN host Brianna Keilar asked if she thought Americans even cared about the U.S. standing abroad and the alliances built. She noted that NATO is a "distant" memory for most Americans and as such she wonders if people even care anymore.
"The one thing that came out of these hearings is people realized there was a country called Ukraine and very emotionally the way Fiona Hill and Bill Taylor talked how Ukrainians are dying every day to protect their territory and the west in general against Russian aggression," Wright explained. "The tragedy in all of this is that we talk a lot about the aid finally getting through, but the fact is the Trump administration has done nothing inner of countering Vladimir Putin on his annexation of Crimea and support for separatists there. This really is the front line for us, too. not just for Europe. This is where the tensions that played out during the Cold War and now in the post-Cold War world, so much is at stake and the repercussions of this report and what happens in this impeachment hearing I think will play out for a very long time. Not just in our elections.
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