Donald Trump's former national security adviser H.R. McMaster published a new book detailing the dysfunction he presided over in the White House, but panelists on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" were astonished that he was unwilling to say whether his old boss deserved another term.
The retired U.S. Army lieutenant general appeared Tuesday morning on the show, where fill-in host Jonathan Lemire pressed him to say whether the former president and current Republican nominee was fit for office, a determination that many of his other former officials have already stated for the record.
"Do you really think that America's national security interests would be served by another Donald Trump term?" Lemire asked.
"Well, I think that's for every voter to decide," McMaster replied.
Lemire asked his opinion, saying he'd seen Trump up close, but McMaster refused, insisting that voters didn't want to hear the opinion of a "washed-up general."
"Let me ask you about one individual voter, you," Lemire insisted. "You said you wouldn't serve in a Trump term. Will you vote for him?"
McMaster refused to answer the question, saying that the purpose of his book was to inform and not to warn. Panelists Eugene Robinson and Mike Barnicle followed up in the next segment by calling him out for his equivocation.
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"I think there's just a stark contradiction in the position he is taking," said Robinson, a Washington Post columnist. "I do understand the reluctance and reticence of retired generals, certainly serving generals, to speak out on politics, what he calls partisan politics. The military, you know, serves whichever party is in office and whichever president is in office, civilian control is certainly a hallmark of the way this country has always operated and should always operate.
"But that said, there's a difference between, you know, partisan politics and the future of the nation and national security – things that a retired general, I think, should and does care about."
"On one hand, he says get over it," Robinson added. "On the other hand, he details these episodes and incidents that are really frightening — at the very least, unsettling, and question the man's fitness to hold any office, much less be commander in chief, and so I don't think there's a tightrope there. I think if that's what you're going to tell us, then you should own up to the fact that that's what you're telling us."
McMaster's book recounts how Trump was so eager to curry favor with Russian President Vladimir Putin that he invited him to stay at Mar-a-Lago, which McMaster discussed during his "Morning Joe" appearance. The longtime newspaper columnist Barnicle shared Robinson's surprise that he refused to speak out against Trump's qualifications.
"The president of the United States thinking he can win [Putin] over with a smile and a meal, or whatever Donald Trump thought, was shocking to me, hearing that from Gen. McMaster," Barnicle said.
"We've had other generals – Barry McCaffrey, Gen. John Kelly, other generals speak out adamantly about the dangers, the dangers of a second Trump administration. I thought Gen. McMaster sort of toed the line on that, and I was surprised by it."
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