MS NOW's Nicolle Wallace's jaw hit the floor on Monday, following reports from U.S. Ambassador to China David Perdue that President Donald Trump is considering an arms sale to China — something the U.S. government swiftly denied was on the table.
Perdue's remarks to The New York Times, said Wallace, "had the White House actually backpedal, going into damage control mode, which is a rare thing this time."
This apparent offer to China's leader Xi Jinping is especially galling, she noted, when "approved arms sales to our ally, a fellow democracy that is deeply needed by China, Taiwan, have been withheld. A package of $14 billion worth of weapons was approved by Congress earlier this year, but has yet to leave the State Department. Sound familiar?"
Wallace displayed a statement from House Armed Services Committee ranking member Adam Smith (D-WA), who, in her words, "noted how bonkers the admission by U.S. Ambassador Perdue was, yet at the same time, how it is what we've come to expect from the country's president."
"I guess it's not stunning to me that President Trump would have made that offer to President Xi," said Smith. "As we know, Trump bounces all over the place in terms of his relationships with just about everybody and says a lot of deeply unhinged things. I can conceive of him saying that, but that Ambassador Perdue would repeat it — I have a lot of respect for Ambassador Perdue ... I think he's doing a good job. But yeah, and let me just be clear that that is not going to happen. It's illegal. It's bad policy, and it's not where we're headed."
"We don't have any psychologists, but we'll try to get to the bottom of it," added Wallace. "We know Trump loves to cozy up to dictators, but offering to sell them weapons goes way beyond that."
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