Donald Rumsfeld on the impact of Trump's Israel decision — Transcript

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1. 0:00I have determined that it is time to
2. 0:05officially recognize Jerusalem as the
3. 0:10capital of Israel while previous
4. 0:15presidents have made this a major
5. 0:17campaign promise they failed to deliver
6. 0:20today I am delivering Clinton promised
7. 0:27to do it Bush promised to do it
8. 0:29Obama promised to do it Trump actually
9. 0:33did it and it took a lot of guts to make
10. 0:36this move much of the Islamic world is
11. 0:38warning of severe unrest in some are
12. 0:41even calling for bloodshed in
13. 0:42retaliation for that move just as the
14. 0:45administration tries to revive the
15. 0:47Mideast peace process who better to tell
16. 0:49us what this all means then former
17. 0:51Secretary of Defense Don Rumsfeld he's
18. 0:54the author of a new memoir of his time
19. 0:56in the Ford administration called when
20. 0:58the center held Gerald Ford and the
21. 1:00rescue of the American presidency mr.
22. 1:03secretary it's great to see you I
23. 1:05haven't seen you in a while thanks for
24. 1:06stopping by tonight
25. 1:07I want to start with the big news of the
26. 1:09day the president's decision to move the
27. 1:11capital of Israel to Jerusalem why is
28. 1:14everybody so upset about the timing
29. 1:16given the fact that this has basically
30. 1:18been on the books since 1995 was a huge
31. 1:21bipartisan support most presidents all
32. 1:24the presents I could think of said that
33. 1:25they were going to do it and they didn't
34. 1:27well it I guess the reason it's an issue
35. 1:31is because there are countries around
36. 1:33the world that would prefer that it had
37. 1:36not been done it's a no brainer it's the
38. 1:39right thing to do president Trump made
39. 1:41the right decision he was stepped up and
40. 1:43did it it's inevitable that there will
41. 1:45be some criticism about it but I just
42. 1:48can't imagine any country in the world
43. 1:51that doesn't believe that they have the
44. 1:53right to have their capital where they
45. 1:54want it here's some of the criticism
46. 1:57that you mentioned put up the fullscreen
47. 1:59Egypt says it would complicate Middle
48. 2:01East matters jordan says potentially
49. 2:03dangerous repercussions Palestinians say
50. 2:05dangerous consequences Saudi Arabia our
51. 2:08ally in the region detrimental to the
52. 2:10peace process turkey says it threatens
53. 2:13to sever its ties with Israel so the
54. 2:16pressure being ramped up both in the
55. 2:18Middle East and in elite circles here in
56. 2:22Washington in Europe and in Europe a
57. 2:24Merkel says it's bad mais Theresa May
58. 2:26says it's bad the Pope weighed in saying
59. 2:29we should keep the status quo is
60. 2:30President Trump out there the man alone
61. 2:33on this no there are a lot of people who
62. 2:35recognize there that it's a rational
63. 2:36thing to do and it's the right thing to
64. 2:39do in my view and I think most of those
65. 2:41countries will get over it I think they
66. 2:43probably have constituencies that feel
67. 2:46that they don't want Israel to be a part
68. 2:49of that world and the vast majority of
69. 2:53the people the world feel differently
70. 2:54they do agree that Israel has a right to
71. 2:56exist and that it should be a part of
72. 2:59that region and that countries are
73. 3:02inevitably going to side where they want
74. 3:04their cattle the point is they think
75. 3:05that Trump is losing the bargaining chip
76. 3:08into that I said well we've been trying
77. 3:10that what the bargain hasn't really gone
78. 3:12that well no I agree I think it's it's
79. 3:15not surprising to me that all the
80. 3:17countries you mentioned have an
81. 3:20understandable need to vent modestly but
82. 3:25it'll go away
83. 3:26if something happens more terrorism
84. 3:30attacks on embassies do you see a
85. 3:33blowback on President Trump like you
86. 3:35provoked this you push this you pushed
87. 3:38it when you didn't need to you're a
88. 3:40wrecking ball mr. chaos that's the line
89. 3:42from the American media many many in the
90. 3:44American media today that this is just
91. 3:46more Trump chaos well I don't see it
92. 3:49that way at all it seems to me that the
93. 3:51president made the right decision he
94. 3:53stepped up and did it it's inevitable
95. 3:56that there'll be people who don't like
96. 3:57it and will make noise about it but the
97. 4:00idea that it would lead to a stream of
98. 4:02terrorism I just don't see that at all I
99. 4:05had bill Richardson on the show last
100. 4:06night former UN Ambassador and he says
101. 4:09he goes all over Europe and he hears
102. 4:11very interesting things about the
103. 4:13president let's watch I go overseas all
104. 4:15the time you know what they ask me Laura
105. 4:17they say why is Perez
106. 4:19from leaving the American economy why is
107. 4:21he negative on the trans-pacific
108. 4:24partnership as it kills American job a
109. 4:26lot of NATO the president's not popular
110. 4:37mr. secretary is not a popular leader in
111. 4:40Obama was a rock star Clinton was the
112. 4:42rock star now we have this guy Trump and
113. 4:44Richardson and company the elites here
114. 4:47it's ruining our image around the world
115. 4:50well that's just not true
116. 4:54methey behavior or the conduct or the
117. 4:57decisions or the positions being taken
118. 5:00by the president united states are
119. 5:02ruining our image around the world I
120. 5:05think is is a massive overstatement the
121. 5:08reality is that the American people made
122. 5:11a conscious decision to put in the
123. 5:13presidency of the United States someone
124. 5:15who had never served in government
125. 5:18military or civilian I would have to
126. 5:22search through history to see if there's
127. 5:24ever been a president who had never
128. 5:26served in government now why did they do
129. 5:28that they did that because they wanted
130. 5:30someone who never served in government
131. 5:32and that's what we've got he does not
132. 5:35behave like an establishment politician
133. 5:38and that is hard for establishment
134. 5:41politicians and establishment media to
135. 5:44accept because it's it's not the normal
136. 5:47behavior of a seasoned politician who's
137. 5:50the president as part of it that these
138. 5:53elites both in media and politics were
139. 5:56so taken off-guard and so embarrassed by
140. 5:58the win of Trump because he took them on
141. 6:00personally he took them on substantively
142. 6:02he shattered all the perceptions of what
143. 6:05you how you have to run a campaign they
144. 6:07were all left flat-footed yeah and and
145. 6:09they all no one thought he'd win also I
146. 6:11mean that's embarrassing but the
147. 6:15American people decided they wanted to
148. 6:16roll the dice and put someone in that
149. 6:19office who came from a different
150. 6:21approach with a different approach and
151. 6:23and they got one and I was with a very
152. 6:27active Democrat today
153. 6:29wonderful classmate of mine from school
154. 6:31and and very much a Democrat and I said
155. 6:36well what do you think about all this he
156. 6:37said well he hasn't done anything wrong
157. 6:38and he hasn't he said what do you think
158. 6:42and I said well the most important job
159. 6:46of a senior executive is picking good
160. 6:48people and he has picked excellent
161. 6:50people the Supreme Court justice Gorsuch
162. 6:53the Vice President Madison defense his
163. 6:56cabinet is is it as good a cabinet it's
164. 6:59anything one of the two or three I
165. 7:00served him and it seems to me that he's
166. 7:04picking very good people sensible sound
167. 7:07thoughtful people parallels between the
168. 7:11treatment of Reagan and the treatment of
169. 7:14Trump in the media and by the elites
170. 7:16especially especially the European
171. 7:17elites I was in college I remember
172. 7:19Ronnie Reagan and oh yeah he's gonna
173. 7:21blow up the world the no nukes movement
174. 7:23it was it was a big push against Reagan
175. 7:25he was gonna blow up the world exactly
176. 7:27and he was the society the the elites in
177. 7:31the society were dismissive of Reagan
178. 7:33and didn't believe a movie actor and
179. 7:36bedtime with Bonzo could do the job and
180. 7:40he got in there and and that wonderful
181. 7:42warm sensible approach that he brought
182. 7:45to governance won over awful lot of
183. 7:50people in our country and he did a fine
184. 7:52job the elites never accepted him until
185. 7:54he was long gone now suddenly Reagan's
186. 7:55there