During a discussion on CNN this weekend with host Jake Tapper, former GOP Congresswoman Liz Cheney of Wyoming ripped former President Donald Trump, who is now running for president again, over recent comments he made that were essentially laudatory (in strategic rather than moral terms) towards foreign terrorist organizations including Hezbollah.
“Every Republican member of Congress ought to be asked about those comments. Every Republican candidate for the presidency ought to be asked about those comments,” Cheney said, adding of Trump: “So if you think about, not only is he out there advocating for, complimenting America’s adversaries and, in fact, terrorist organizations that slaughter innocents, he also seems to have shared very highly classified intelligence information — both ours and the Israelis’ in fact with adversaries. So I think it’s simply the latest example of why Donald Trump is not fit to be president of the United States.”
The basic premise of Trump’s quickly infamous comments was that there was allegedly some impressive strategy evident in recent actions by terror organizations like Hezbollah and Hamas, the latter of which led a campaign of violence in Israel from which the death toll quickly surpassed 1,400, combined with an increasing toll of reported death and destruction in the Gaza Strip after Israel launched its responses to the recent attacks. At times, impacts in Gaza have been at least tentatively tied to developments like a misfired rocket from terror groups operating in the area itself rather than an Israeli strike.
Fundamentally evident, however, is that the terrorism by Hamas and its allies has produced simply further death and destruction. Trump’s argument they’ve shown strategic prowess are not reflective of reality. Trump, though, has applied the very same characterization to Russian military violence against Ukraine, where civilians have been killed in large numbers amid substantial destruction inflicted across certain areas of the country. Again, in basic terms, this isn’t formidable strategy. It’s internationally condemned devastation… with which presidential candidate Trump evidently struggles to recognize consistent issue!
.@Liz_Cheney on Donald Trump calling Hezbollah smart and criticizing Netanyahu:
“They were appalling comments…I think it’s simply the latest example of why Donald Trump is not fit to be President of the United States.” pic.twitter.com/ftLH05u4uF
— Republican Accountability (@AccountableGOP) October 22, 2023
