ABC journalist Terry Moran suffered a full meltdown as he reacted to Donald Trump’s United Nations speech on Tuesday. The network's chief foreign correspondent condemned the President’s warning to North Korea as “bordering on the threat of a war crime.” Bizarrely, he claimed that the speech, which warned Iran and condemned socialism in Venezuela, was one Vladimir Putin would give and that dictators everywhere would love.
Trump told the United Nations that if America is “forced to defend itself or its allies, we will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea.” In response, Moran freaked out: “The words ‘totally destroying’ a nation of 25 million people, that borders on the threat of committing a war crime.”
The speech included lines like this one: “The problem in Venezuela is not that socialism has been poorly implemented, but that socialism has been faithfully implemented.” The President also condemned the “murderous regime” in Iran. Somehow, Moran twisted these remarks into a defense of dictators:
He said something, frankly, that Vladimir Putin would have said — no question about it — when he said, “We do not expect diverse countries to share the same cultures, but we do expect all nations to uphold two core sovereign duties, to respect the interests of their own people and the rights of every other sovereign nation." And there are lots of dictators around the world, including Vladimir Putin, who say the same thing and will hear those words, however President Trump meant them, as a license to do whatever they want to their own people.
Moran isn’t always so tough on new presidents. On February 20, 2009, he compared Barack Obama to George Washington: “I like to say that, in some ways, Barack Obama is the first President since George Washington to be taking a step down into the Oval Office.”
A transcript of the ABC coverage is below:
ABC live coverage
9/19/17
10:47amGEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: I want to bring in our chief foreign correspondent, Terry Moran in London this morning as well. And Terry, as I said, a meditation on this theme of strong sovereign nations. A very unapologetic speech from President Trump.
TERRY MORAN: That's right, George. This is the revenge of the nation state, which was meant to bring the nation states together after they tore the world apart in World War II under the umbrella of cooperation. Every American president — the United States basically birthed the United Nations and every president since then has at least paid lip service to this notion of bringing the nations together under the aegis of the United Nations. This was very different. He said something, frankly, that Vladimir Putin would have said — No question about it — when he said, “We do not expect diverse countries to share the same cultures, but we do expect all nations to uphold two core sovereign duties, to respect the interests of their own people and the rights of every other sovereign nation." And there are lots of dictators around the world, including Vladimir Putin, who say the same thing and will hear those words, however President Trump meant them, as a license to do whatever they want to their own people.
STEPHANOPOULOS: I think that’s true, although there was also some veiled criticism of both Vladimir Putin and China when he talked about preserving sovereignty from Ukraine to the South China Sea.
...
10:50
STEPHANOPOULOS: I want to follow that up with Terry Moran as well. Because, Terry, if you read the President’s words, he said the conditions for totally destroying North Korea would be “if forced to defend ourselves and our allies.” You could read that to possibly even open up justification for preventive war against North Korea.
MORAN: That is a potential justification. But the words “totally destroying” a nation of 25 million people, that borders on the threat of committing a war crime.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Yeah. And that is going to be the last word for us right now. Extraordinary speech from President Donald Trump at the United Nations General Assembly today, his first speech to the U.N. General Assembly. We are going to return you now to regular programming.
