NBC News chief foreign affairs correspondent Andrea Mitchell played the role of Obama administration hack on Monday afternoon, bewailing President Trump’s national security speech as a rejection of his predecessor’s world view on everything from climate change to Israel to trade to the United Nations.
“There were some contradictions because he spoke of China and Russia as being revisionist countries who are aiming to hurt the United States. This after two really, remarkably chummy conversations with Vladimir Putin in the last four days alone,” Mitchell began.
The seemingly legitimate questions disappeared as she complained without any sense of objectivity that Trump has been “widely criticized by many economic and trade experts for having withdrawn from the TPP trade deal, which gave China an open field to compete and best the United States where we basically left the field open to China and did not join all of our other Asian allies to make these multi-lateral trade agreements.”
Of course, climate change arose with Mitchell noting that many on the left have deemed it a grave threat to national security:
The other thing is notably is that he doesn't speak about climate change, which has been declared by the Pentagon and by the Obama administration certainly as part of a national security challenge because of the effect that climate change has on refugees and migration movements.
Throughout this rant, one could only help but conclude that Mitchell still hasn’t come to grips with the reality that Barack Obama has left the White House and Hillary Clinton lost the election.
Mitchell bemoaned Trump’s speech as “a departure and open criticism as Hallie was just saying, sounding more like a campaign speech, like a stump speech than a real national security strategy” before concluding with America’s refusal to reverse course on declaring Jerusalem to be the capital of Israel.
Here’s Mitchell before she was cut off by NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt for an NTSB press conference on the Washington state Amtrak derailment:
[A]nd it comes only hours after our closest allies France and Great Britain lined up 14 to 1 against the United States at the U.N. Security Council today, rejecting the President's designation of Jerusalem as legal capital of Israel to have our embassy eventually move and that 14-1 resignation — rather, rejection did include the first veto by the United States at the U.N. Security Council today.
Here’s the relevant transcript from the NBC News Special on December 18:
NBC News Special
December 18, 2017
2:33 p.m. Eastern
LESTER HOLT: But let's stick on the subject of the President's speech a moment ago and go to Andrea Mitchell. Andrea, did you hear anything in there that might have perked up the ears of allies or adversaries overseas?
ANDREA MITCHELL: There were some contradictions because he spoke of China and Russia as being revisionist countries who are aiming to hurt the United States. This after two really, remarkably chummy conversations with Vladimir Putin in the last four days alone. He also — in talking about China as trying to compete against the United States, he is widely criticized by many economic and trade experts for having withdrawn from the TPP trade deal, which gave China an open field to compete and best the United States where we basically left the field open to China and did not join all of our other Asian allies to make these multi-lateral trade agreements. The other thing is notably is that he doesn't speak about climate change, which has been declared by the Pentagon and by the Obama administration certainly as part of a national security challenge because of the effect that climate change has on refugees and migration movements. And also it was a departure and open criticism as Hallie was just saying, sounding more like a campaign speech, like a stump speech than a real national security strategy and it comes only hours after our closest allies France and Great Britain lined up 14 to 1 against the United States at the U.N. Security Council today, rejecting the President's designation of Jerusalem as legal capital of Israel to have our embassy eventually move and that 14-1 resignation — rather, rejection did include the first veto by the United States at the U.N. Security Council today.
