Transcription
You need to understand the sick psychological dynamic of what President Trump is up to with these prosecutions and not to see just the John Bolton prosecution. It's a larger revenge drama that is consuming person after person in Washington. We need to understand this as it is and not to try to make this seem more normal or like other administrations of the past. This is unlike anything we've ever seen before.
You've been around the block. You worked in the George W. Bush White House. How big a moment is today? One of the themes of the Trump administration is that while there are many secrets, there are no mysteries. It takes a lot of effort not to see what happened today, but there are people up to that effort. You need to understand the sick psychological dynamic of what President Trump is up to with these prosecutions and not to see just the John Bolton prosecution, but also to see that his justice department is simultaneously bringing actions against New York Attorney General Leticia James is bringing actions against a Federal Reserve Board chairman.
What Donald Trump is doing is going through the list of crimes for which he was either indicted or duly convicted and saying, "I want to find someone else to punish for the crimes I was indicted for, convicted for." So, Donald Trump stole dozens of boxes of highly classified documents, including reportedly nuclear secrets. So, let me go after someone else for classified information. Donald Trump was convicted of falsifying business records in order to deceive banks and other lenders about the value of his properties. Let me go after other opponents of mine for the same crime for which I was convicted. And that is what is going on here. This is the working out of a psychological drama. And the place to study this is not in the field of law and not to look for, you know, is John Bolton more like other people in the past who have also had published books that used information they had. You need to understand what the president is up to here.
I speak to you from a city where military personnel are patrolling the streets with live ammunition after Donald Trump has sent military personnel to the streets of Los Angeles, soon as he said today, New York and Chicago. So, we need to understand this as it is and not to try to make this seem more normal or like other administrations of the past. This is unlike anything we've ever seen before. In the same way, the scale of bribes that Donald Trump is soliciting and receiving is unlike anything in American history.
I mean, is this bigger than what happened under the Nixon presidency? Obviously, we all know there was the big. We owe a giant. What Donald Trump does every day. Nixon, Richard Nixon used to get drunk and take pills and fantasize on the phone about illegal actions. Donald Trump does daily what Richard Nixon fantasized about, including, by the way, sending police to attack the homes of his political opponents.
I mean, you were talking about the military. Perhaps I could ask for your reaction in terms of the way that the Trump presidency moves against people who criticize him. I think we've learned in the last few hours that the Pentagon has fired the head of the Defense Intelligence Agency. That's Air Force Lieutenant General Jeffrey Cruz. Now, the Defense Intelligence Agency gave an assessment of the US bombing of the Iranian nuclear facilities saying that it had put it back by a few months. Obviously, Donald Trump and JD Vance said it had obliterated it. He appears to have been sacked for giving an assessment that they didn't really like. What's your assessment of that?
Well, this is one of dozens of intelligence officers who have been purged, both at DIA, Defense Intelligence Agency, at other agencies too, including many of the counterterrorism people at FBI. The problem is responsible civil servants recognize, responsible national security people recognize everything that John Bolton said about Donald Trump. That this is a person who is not fit to be trusted with the secrets of the United States. They've said so, and Donald Trump regards them as enemies because in a way, you can be loyal to Donald Trump or you can be loyal to the national security interest of the United States. It's a little difficult to do both. It's impossible to do both. And so, one by one, he is purging the national security apparatus in the United States of everyone who can do the job properly.
But we heard from Mark about how John Bolton may have questions to answer over his issues over classified material in his book and also, you know, what that search of Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump being impeached. Is it really that different?
Um, look, when police abuse their powers, they do find a missing tail light on the car, but that's not the reason for the search. And I do think we have to use some of our critical judgment here and be aware of the story in its totality. If he is doing this on the same day that he says, "I want to persecute Leticia James and other people I don't like for the same crime for which I was convicted," on the same day as this happens with John Bolton for the crime for which Donald Trump was indicted. You need to see that what is working out here is a revenge drama. It's not about the specific facts of John Bolton. It's a larger revenge drama that is consuming person after person in Washington. And people who look to the details, which always exist to excuse the pattern of what is happening here, are refusing to see an imminent danger that is breaking upon the country.
There was that very big summit in the White House, all those European leaders over Ukraine. There was a lot of talk at security about security guarantees. Doesn't seem to be going anywhere, and indeed Sergey Lavrov, who's the Russian foreign minister, saying that Russia should be involved in providing those security guarantees. Is that summit sort of unraveling?
No, the point of the Trump-Putin summit now, it worked out exactly as it was intended. What Trump is trying to do is to buy time week after week in order not to help Ukraine. And what he is relying on is the credulity of a press corps. In some ways, it's too difficult for us to accept the magnitude of what is happening. So, every time Trump coughs or says it's sad that Ukrainian children are being murdered by Russian rockets, people say this must be a pivot. This must be the long-awaited pivot. But Trump's policy has been absolutely clear and consistent. He is on Putin's side in this war. He wants to sabotage Ukraine's self-defense effort. And the reason the Europeans went there in the falange that they did was to protect their ally Ukraine from being defamed and insulted and abused in the way that he did on his last visit by Putin's ally, Donald Trump.
David, thank you so much for joining us from Washington.