To which audience replies with resounding laughter.
So is this another instance where Trump âforgotâ to tell Pence what the current situation is? Perhaps in this instance the first Trump hears this line from the media reports so he can again call fake news and Pence will again be imbarrased when he finds everyone else is on a different page and informed by Trump of the current plan
Empty words. Tillerson and Pence and all the other âgrownupsâ can run around reassuring allies and directly contradicting trump, but since their words are not backed up by any authoritative, truthful, steadfast voice in the administration, they mean nothing.
Translation: âHave your security services leak everything they have on Trump and a friend of NATO will take over as President.â
Of course, one has to go to the British papers to see what really happened.
Mike Pence widens US rift with Europe over Nato defence spending
On first visit to Europe since taking office, US vice-president tells Munich conference Nato allies must step up their contributions
Mike Pence widens US rift with Europe over Nato defence spending | Nato | The Guardian
What is a throw-away line in the AP story is the main topic abroad.
Dealing with the Russians is no longer what Pence thinks it is. Without a State Department, dealing with the rest of the world is radically different from what legislators are used to. Government by chaos has inflicted heavy damage on us already.
Coming from someone who was kept in the dark about one of the more serious issues to hit the Trump campaign so far,yeah Mike your voice will carry a lot of weight ,LOL !
Okay. We know that pinz doesnât have an original thought in his head because if he had a brain, he would take it out and play with it.
SoâŚwho told him to say this and why at this venue? Thereâs no way he came up with this on his own and vput has dtâs gonads in a vice so dt wouldnât.
Iâm guessing the rinse&repeat/lyin-ryan faction are trying to put a target on dts back for the ruskies to shoot at. If vput takes dt out (with leaks, etc.) then they can appear noble when they rush in with their docile replacement and act like heroes.
The vice president learned that he had been misled through media accounts about two weeks after the president was informed.
Sorry AP, but to state this as fact without a qualification that this is what Pence claims, and other Republicans are saying, though it has yet to be proven, does a disservice to the American people in your reporting on the known facts at this time.
Also, that 2% is based on what exactly? Cash in some kind of bank account held in trust to NATO?
Many countries devote resources through their intelligence and diplomatic services to this alliance, paying their own NATO defense teams and other people to support the overall mission. Those countries also provide staging in-country to protect democratic institutions throughout Europe. There are many other areas where the contributions by member states within NATO arenât being calculated, though the idea to reduce it to a per diem or yearly cash basis sidesteps the other ways various countries contribute to this alliance. As Americans, we benefit when other struggling or nascent democracies fight against autocratic rulers and takeoversâŚThat is incalculable.
To keep this alliance strong, struggling countries that have broken away from the Russian Republic need our support as the richest nation on earth probably more so now than ever in a very long time. As many of these countries are former satellite states of the USSR, we need to support this alliance by not trying to make poorer countries fall through the cracks, either through propaganda efforts by Russia, or outright military hostility and dictatorship under Putin. Same goes for any other autocratic ruler that runs afoul of this alliance.
I simply cannot understand how these once national defense oriented Republicans now seem unable to understand this basic concept now that we have the Orange Menace to deal withâŚ
Trump and his buddies need to read the Three MusketeersâŚâAll for one and one for allâ to simply understand how the fuck NATO works.
Itâs like the veep debateâPence is the guy designated to sit and shake his head, smiling with amused tolerance of human folly, as he says ânoâ again and again in denial of the obvious facts. Pence is window dressing at the moment, not to be taken seriously. That may change, but for the moment there are one or two or three personalities driving events from the White House and heâs not one of them.
âWith notably tempered applauseâ
It may be worth pointing out that many European countries buy much of their military supplies from the USA, so it is a bit self-serving to talk about âdo your partâ. (Denmark has F-16s currently and has, unfortunately, signed up for the F-35. We buy our tanks from Germany, though).
Pence and Trump, the Yin and the Yang of American foreign policy.
Trump tweets that he is at the âSouthern White Houseâ right now
Voila! He is at work 7 days a week.
Pence has repeatedly acted as a âwater boyâ for Trump and the dysfunctional administration espousing factual untruths and/or positions contrary to policy formed by an âinner circle.â One wonders when Pence will grow a spine and rebel at his being out of the inner circle.
Pence sings to the conference
And our friends are all aboard
Many more of us live next door
And the band begins to play
We all live in a finely tuned machine
finely tuned machine
finely tuned machine
Interesting how, in just a few days, it has gone from âWinter White Houseâ to âSouthern White House.â Guess that man knows where his final support will be. Might as well call it âBerchtesgaden Southâ
Howard Fineman on Trump White House:
âA flaming wreckage already.â
Tara. I can spell it.
âVice President Mike Pence vowed Saturday that the United States will âhold Russia accountable.ââ
âPence said the U.S. would be âunwaveringâ in its commitment to trans-Atlantic institutions like NATO.â
Did Trump get those memos? If so will he read them (or will someone read them to him)?
Statements like the two above from ANY member of the Trump misadministration are completely unreliable predictors of actual future policy. We DONâT know that (1) the United States will hold Russia accountable and we DONâT know that (2) the U.S. will be unwavering in its commitment to NATO. In the Trump misadministration we cannot know anything beforehand just because a misadministration official makes announcements. Such announcements are worthless because nobody knows what is in Stephen Bannonâs devious head.