Ex-CIA chief worries what lies Trump is telling G7 allies behind-closed-doors
The former director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) worried on Monday about what lies President Donald Trump told American allies behind-closed-doors during the G7 Summit in France.
MSNBC anchor Chris Hayes recounted the summit for viewers.
"If you are lucky enough, as frankly I was, to be enjoying a final pre-Labor Day summer weekend and were not paying attention to the minute-by-minute antics of the commander-in-chief, here’s a quick noncomprehensive rundown of Donald Trump’s G7 Summit. Like so much about this president it was at one level bemusing, but also horrifying, because the stakes of the things he’s so glibly blowing off are so high," Hayes recounted
"For instance, the Amazon, which is still burning at an alarming rate over the weekend The New York Times covered the fact there are now devastating fires in Bolivia and experts say it could take up to, '200 years for the forests in Bolivia to heal.' The world leaders at the G7 had a meeting about it and all leaders were there except one -- guess who. The new White House press secretary said Trump skipped because he had scheduled meetings with Germany and India. One problem with that account, the leaders of both those countries were at the climate meeting, so who knows."
For analysis, Hayes interviewed for CIA Director John Brennan.
"Do you think that over the course of this presidency so far that both world leaders and global diplomatic corp. and intelligence services have changed the way they react to this president’s statements, as they have acclimated themselves to the degree of lack of preparation or tossed-offedness of what he might say in these sort of events?" Hayes asked.
"Oh, absolutely," Brennan replied. "I think a lot of the leaders have written off what he says publicly."
"But, also I’m very concerned -- given his public dishonesty -- what dishonesty is he engaged in in these private meetings with world leaders, with those allies of countries that we have worked with so hard for so long. What is he telling them?" he wondered.
"But I think they realize he is way, way out of his depth, that he is incompetent, but also he is somewhat delusional as far as how he views the world and his inability to grasp the reality of the geostrategic situation around the globe today," he added.
"Well, it’s bad enough that Donald Trump is so incompetent in terms of carrying out his responsibilities, but it’s the dishonesty that I think really hurts this country most," he added.
"It’s when the American people listen to him and they know that he is lying, but also the foreign leaders who, again, look to the United States as being the leader of the western world, of the free world, of the entire world," he explained. "They recognize that Donald Trump is just fabricating one story after another. So how can they put any stock in what he says or what he says he’s going to do?"
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