TPM: Joe Scarborough Claims Trump Asked Advisor Why US Can't Use Nukes (VIDEO)
MSNBC host Joe Scarborough reported on the air Wednesday morning that when Donald Trump met for a briefing with an unnamed foreign policy expert, the GOP nominee allegedly asked, “Why can’t we use nuclear weapons?” several times.
Scarborough made the claim during an interview with retired Air Force Gen. Michael Hayden, who expressed concern about how Trump would be an “erratic” and “inconsistent” commander-in-chief.
When Hayden curtly said he’s not aware a single one of his colleagues advising Trump on foreign policy, Scarborough spoke up.
“I have to follow up with that, but I’ll be very careful here. Several months ago, a foreign policy expert on the international level went to advise Donald Trump, and three times he asked about the use of nuclear weapons. Three times he asked, at one point, ‘If we have them, why can’t we use them?” Scarborough said.
“Trump asked three times?” commentator Mike Barnicle asked.
“Three times in an hour briefing, ‘Why can’t we use nuclear weapons?’” Scarborough said again.
Read more ....
Update: Donald Trump Asked an Adviser Three Times Why the U.S. Can’t Use Its Nukes, Says Joe Scarborough (Slate)
WNU Editor: This remark came up when the MSNBC host was talking with former CIA/NSA Director Michael Hayden .... Former CIA director fears Trump 'crisis in civil-military relationships' (Politico). What's my take .... LOL .... this is the top story for MSNBC right now .... a story that they heard from someone who heard it from someone else and who are now demanding an answer from the Trump campaign to answer these charges .... not the secret $400 million cash ransom payment disclosed last night that was made by the White House to Iran to free 4 American hostages.
Update: Zero Hedge is right .... What The Media Will Be Obsessing About Today: Trump Asks "Why Can't We Use Nuclear Weapons" (Zero Hedge).
Update: The Trump campaign has responded .... Trump denies asking why nukes aren't used (The Hill)
5 comments:
I believe that was the exact question Harry s Truman asked in 1945. It's a natural to ask precisely what the negative impact would be from an "expert."
This whole thing is bizarre. If Mr. Trump asked this question, it is actually a legitimate question. Yet his campaign denies he asked this. Maybe he only asked the question once or maybe twice and not three times!!
I do know from my business experience and personal experience it is sometimes prudent to ask questions that one already knows the answer to in order to test just how smart the so called "experts" really are. Additionally it is commonly understood that even stupid questions are permissible under the guiding principle of "it's better to answer a stupid question now than to correct a dumb mistake later." Also, it is common practice to keep such deliberations secret. Airing the information to those not informed is considered taboo and will generally result in stunted career advancement prospects and to publically air such deliberations with the intentions of harming someone who participated in the process, while perhaps not criminal, is de facto criminal as such a person will never be trusted again and their career prospects beyond the most menial tasks is over. Even the lowest level of the business team knows better to behave with such stupidity as the people on MSNBC did!!
This amounts to a "he said, she said" type of thing. Only little children and teenage girls gossip. Everyone else knows such things are not acceptable or should. This is further confirmation that the foreign policy establishment and probably most of the military leadership in the USA needs to be purged. I've suspected this for a long time. It's pleasing to see that Mr. Trump, flawed as he is, actually seems willing to address such things and is unafraid to challenge old assumptions about things. Again, this would be a legitimate question to ask.
As for the ransom money, it was very irresponsible of the media to report this. As part of the context of reaching agreements with various stakeholders in the world, exchanges of money may be necessary depending upon the situation. By releasing such information they've just made it harder for POTUS or others within the US government to reach agreements with these stakeholders. Even if kept from the American people these international stakeholders know the truth of these situations and it will make them less likely to trust the American side and it will make it harder for the American side to have the flexibility to properly deal with these situations.
It's understandable that none Military people that have not studied war or weapons or served in the military, not to know this, it akin to get a Military person to give you business advise. One of the big problems the US and the World face in this election and in most of the elections since 1980 is that most of the elected from President on down have no or very little Military experience with the exception of Old Bush and to a lesser extent Jr. The Clintons and Obama have no military experience professional Politicians, nor does Trump a Businessman. But the worse is they have no memory of a big war, the wars since 1945 which theWeast have participated are minor in comparison to the Disaster of WW1 and 2 and they have thru propaganda been romanticized. As a kid growing up in the 1960's, I saw the men in my neighborhood, the burns on my fathers face and hands, the man across the street bullet wound in his shoulder, the man 2 doors down with the shatter knee,the man I would see on the bus that had a rebuilt face. My own military service was an eye opener, when we did NBCW Training changed me forever. I am not surprised that Trump would ask these questions, as we go further away in time from the real big Wars, we will see more and more ignorance by our so called leadership and by the general population at large.
It was 99 years from the defeat of Napoleon to WW1 in 1914, by 1914 all the people that had fought in the Napoleonic Wars were gone as were the people that knew them, and when WW1 broke out the So Called leaderships were as simple as the So Called Leaders are today, we are so fucked.
In fact the answer to the question is actually we do use them today. We store them is safe facilities in other countries, particularly those in close proximity to Russia and China. They know they are there and ready to be used as an outright weapon. Right now their are being used passively to keep our options opens and to threaten our supposed enemies into submission that is, to not launch against us.
At least Mr. Trump had the sense to ask such a question assuming he really did. It appears others do not.
At one point, he had pointed out correctly, in my considered opinion, our arsenal is old and we are not even sure if it will work if needed. I don't see any one else with a chance of influencing things who are even bright enough to even point this out. Also, Russia has upgraded their arsenal and have a massive edge in tactical unclear weapons.
As stated previously, we cannot expect to win a war against Russia. The best we can do is make their inevitable victory pyric enough that they don't consider the attack in the first place. This along with avoiding actions that they could/would view as provocative may be enough.
With that said shouldn't we be upgrading our nuclear arsenal and adding a much more robust tactical nuclear weapons component than currently present? Wouldn't it be appropriate for our allies to have such capabilities as well taking some of the pressure off of a US military who would be hard pressed to defend the American mainland right now? Mr. Trump is at least asking the right questions and raising the right points or so it seems.
If he focuses on things such as the need to renegotiate trade agreements that are killing us, renegotiating foreign military agreements that are sucking us dry and undermining our own national defense, trying to improve relations with Russia, changing onerous regulations that are killing our economy, and repealing and replacing the disaster of Obamacare, he wins in a landslide. If the election becomes about his sometimes abrasive personality and his big mouth, then he may lose.
I remain fully confident at this time that the election will be about the issues above that he has addressed as opposed to Mr. Trump himself. As such, the prediction of a Trump presidency is unchanged but I had expected his campaign and Mr. Trump himself to get his ego under control by now.
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