Supporting, as we do, the great majority of the policy initiatives that you and your administration are pursuing, we nevertheless have a word of advice: Stop talking mindlessly; just act. Can’t one or more of your key advisors persuade you to simply shut up for a while?
Your comments during your interview with Bill O’Reilly on Super Bowl Sunday were appalling. Whether you simply meant to push back against O’Reilly’s comments about Putin or whether you spoke without thinking, as you often do, your statement about America having its own killers was disastrous.
Lest you think we’re overstating the facts, let’s look at how it went down.
O’Reilly asked you if you respect Vladimir Putin, and when you said yes, he asked why. You said if Russia and the United States had better relations, it would be a good thing, especially if Russia helps with the fight against ISIS and Islamic terrorism elsewhere.
So far, so good.
Here’s a transcript of what happened next:
O’Reilly: “He’s a killer, though. Putin’s a killer.”
You: “There are a lot of killers, you’ve got a lot of killers. What, you think our country’s so innocent? You think our country’s so innocent?”
O’Reilly: “I don’t know of any government leaders that are killers in the American …”
You: “Well, take a look at what we’ve done, too. Made a lot of mistakes. I’ve been against the war in Iraq from the beginning …”
O’Reilly: “Yeah, mistakes are different than …”
You: “A lot of mistakes. O.K? But a lot of people were killed. So, a lot of killers around, believe me.”
However you got into this quagmire, you ended up suggesting moral equivalence between Russia and the United States. That’s Russia, where prominent critics of the leader from time to time die mysterious deaths; and the United States, where from time to time leaders make policy blunders with negative effects that are unintended.
Your statement gives ammunition to every leftist and community activist in this divided country and will be quoted endlessly by Hollywood celebrities and left-wingers like Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders not to mention our enemies abroad. America-Lasters may put posters of your comments on their dorm walls at Left-Wing U.
President Barack Obama shamed us all with his apology tour in 2009. But to have a sitting American President state that America’s actions are similar to Russia’s is calamitous.
We realize you don’t believe in apologizing, and hey, it sure has gotten you a long way. So let’s forget about the past. It’s so three-days-ago.
But something to think about for the future:
If you continue to shoot your mouth off without thinking about the implications of your words, you will lose support from the voters who put you in office and will achieve little.
