Former Obama State Department official and current CNN Newsroom co-host Jim Sciutto interviewed former Obama counterterrorism adviser and current Biden aide Lisa Monaco on Tuesday. It's like a class reunion. The Obama veterans agreed that President Trump's approach to China during the pandemic is making the United States "an island" in the court of international public opinion.
Sciutto warned that Australian intelligence does not believe assertions the virus escaped a Wuhan lab as part of a lab accident. A worried Sciutto used that reporting to ask Monaco, "Given the president's effort, broader effort to blame China for the outbreak, are you worried about political influence on the intelligence itself and the intelligence community here?" As if Team Obama never exerted political influence, like in trying to spy on the Trump campaign in 2016?
Monaco naturally agreed with Sciutto's view, and dismissed the idea of sanctions against China for lying about the virus and letting it spread around the globe. "And the other thing is, here, Jim, you know, in the discussion with the reporters in this segment, the discussion about retaliation, potential sanctions, even if the United States wants to go that road, the problem is if you don't have your allies on board if you're completely isolated, if we the United States are completely isolated, in making our case, well, the effect of sanctions is quite minimal."
Sciutto worried that it may be too late to work with allies, "Now, that ship sadly seems to have sailed, has it not? If anything we're seeing a greater focus on attacking, well, certainly attacking China, but on steps did it seems to make the U.S. an island in its response to this, right? Even steps to reduce or stop immigration, right, part of another agenda that proceeded the pandemic."
That the U.S. is on an island would seem to be contrast with the second source material for the segment from Reuters that says that Chinese intelligence has told their government that anti-Chinese sentiment worldwide is at the highest it's been since Tiananmen Square. In Australia -- one ally Trump is supposedly isolating us from -- the Chinese ambassador threatened economic consequences due to bipartisan calls for an investigation into the outbreak.
But that didn't stop Monaco from again agreeing with Sciutto's assessment, "No, I don't. No, I mean it’s—I think you’re quite right, the course has been set here and it is a course that has us really facing entirely inward and when it comes to global health security, I think that’s very, very dangerous."
Here is a transcript for the May 5 show:
CNN
CNN Newsroom with Poppy Harlow and Jim Sciutto
9:36 AM ET
JIM SCIUTTO: Given the president's effort, broader effort to blame China for the outbreak, are you worried about political influence on the intelligence itself and the intelligence community here?
LISA MONACO: I am. I think what we're seeing is a continued pattern of trying to politicize the intelligence community and putting a thumb on the scale by having multiple political statements that are, again, divorced from what the career intelligence professionals are saying.And the other thing is, here, Jim, you know, in the discussion with the reporters in this segment, the discussion about retaliation, potential sanctions, even if the United States wants to go that road, the problem is if you don't have your allies on board if you're completely isolated, if we the United States are completely isolated, in making our case, well, the effect of sanctions is quite minimal. So there is -- there are many, many reasons why you want to be working in coordination with your allies, both on the intelligence side and more broadly, because you won't have the effect you're even trying to achieve I you don't bring your allies on board.
SCIUTTO: Now, that ship sadly seems to have sailed, has it not? If anything we're seeing a greater focus on attacking, well, certainly attacking China, but on steps did it seems to make the U.S. an island in its response to this, right? Even steps to reduce or stop immigration, right, part of another agenda that proceeded the pandemic. Do you see the administration course correcting on this as it goes forward?
MONACO: No, I don't. No, I mean it’s—I think you’re quite right, the course has been set here and it is a course that has us really facing entirely inward and when it comes to global health security, I think that’s very, very dangerous.
