Sen. Coons: “What the president is doing is undermining both his credibility and the credibility of the presidency”
Sen. Coons: “The recent episode where he allegedly shared highly classified secrets with the Russian foreign minister in the Oval Office continues to raise serious questions about whether he understands the consequences of his actions.”
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations and Judiciary Committees, today joined Morning Joe to discuss the investigation into possible coordination between the Trump campaign and the Russians as well as the recent attack in Manchester.
“What the president is doing is undermining both his credibility and the credibility of the presidency. If you think about all the different folks who have reported that he has inappropriately tried to pressure them to back off the Russia investigation or investigating Mike Flynn, the former FBI director who he fired, the NSA director, the director of national intelligence all have reportedly said the president engaged in completely inappropriate conversations. He either doesn't understand how these relationships work between the presidency, law enforcement, and the intelligence community, or he just doesn't care. That makes all of us less safe.”
Full audio and video available here.
Excerpts from the interview:
Senator Coons on President Trump: What the president is doing is undermining both his credibility and the credibility of the presidency. If you think about all the different folks who have reported that he has inappropriately tried to pressure them to back off the Russia investigation or investigating Mike Flynn, the former FBI director who he fired, the NSA director, the director of national intelligence all have reportedly said the president engaged in completely inappropriate conversations. He either doesn't understand how these relationships work between the presidency, law enforcement, and the intelligence community, or he just doesn't care. That makes all of us less safe.
Senator Coons on the Russia investigation: I think the investigations here in the Senate and in the House need to move forward. When the former CIA director testifies as he did yesterday that the ongoing investigation is well founded and that when he left the office he had seen evidence that gave him pause and real concern, I think there's a lot of smoke here. I think it deserves a thorough and fair investigation. I’m encouraged that the Republicans and Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Committee are cooperating, coordinating well; I'm encouraged Bob Mueller has been named special counsel to move forward with the FBI counterintelligence and potentially criminal investigation, and I think all of this means we're on a good path to getting to the bottom of this. I think it's important for the country that we get to bottom of this and I think it's important that the president stop doing things that could be misunderstood as either interfering in this investigation or raising more questions. The recent episode where he allegedly shared highly classified secrets with the Russian foreign minister in the Oval Office continues to raise serious questions about whether he understands the consequences of his actions.
Senator Coons on Manchester: First, our alliance with the people of Great Britain is one of our closest, strongest, oldest, and our prayers are with the families who have lost loved ones in Manchester. We continue to care for and hope for recovery for those victims of this terrible attack. We've got a very close intelligence and defense partnership with the U.K., and that news is troubling. And it suggests that we have even more close allies who are questioning whether we can be trusted with vital intelligence. This is a key part of what keeps us safe is a global network of allies with whom we share intelligence and strategic planning and defense resources. I'm about to go to a regional conference in Asia on security with Republican senators and I think it's important that on a bipartisan basis, we continue to sustain those partnerships, but I'm hearing real questions raised whether this administration, in particular whether President Trump, understands what it means to treat highly classified intelligence carefully and responsibly.
More on Manchester: This is part of what makes combatting terrorism in our modern environment so difficult. This is someone who was probably difficult to stop but if he was known to law enforcement, it means we need to act in a stronger way to ensure that America's counterintelligence and law enforcement communities are led in responsible and nonpartisan ways. When the president returns from his trip, he'll likely name the next FBI director and it's my hope it will be someone who has a long career in federal law enforcement, someone who hasn't stood for partisan political office, and someone who can command a broad bipartisan vote in the Senate. Because the FBI in our country plays a very central role in investigating leads of the sort that might have led law enforcement in the U.K. to anticipate or stop this particular attack.
Senator Coons on sending more troops to Afghanistan: Well, the core challenge here is understanding what the strategy is. President Trump has pushed down to the commander level—combatant commander level—decisions about things like troop levels and deployment. The major strike that was carried out a few weeks ago where we used the largest non-nuclear piece of ordinance in American history was apparently not directly approved by the president, but by a combatant commander. This decision about troop levels is also going to be made by combatant commanders, but it is the president's responsibility as commander in chief to make strategic decisions and to articulate to the Senate his strategy for Afghanistan that would justify reengaging and raising our troop levels. As a means to stabilize Afghanistan, I think he can make an argument for the strategy. My personal concern is that, under President Obama, we had as many as 100,000 American troops and we were not able to defeat the Taliban with that troop presence. I'm not sure how 5,000 would make a telling difference.
Senator Coons on what stability in Afghanistan means: To not have the government that was duly-elected that we support and that is sustaining what stability in the country fall. I think there's real concern it is not a long-term stable and sustainable government.
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