QOTD: The Donald
by digby
Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” when host Chuck Todd questioned Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump on his military positions, Trump said he watches television shows for military advice.
Todd asked, “Let’s go foreign affairs. You want to knock the hell out of ISIS, how?”
Trump said, “I want to take away their wealth. And as you know, for years, I’ve been saying, don’t go into Iraq. They went into Iraq, they destabilized the Middle East. It was a big mistake. Okay, now we’re there, and you have ISIS. And I said this was going to happen. I said Iran will take over Iraq, which is happening, as sure as you’re sitting there, and ISIS is taking over a lot of oil in certain areas of Iraq. And I said, you take away their wealth. You go and knock the hell out of the oil, take back the oil. We take over the oil, which we should have done in the first place.”
Todd continued, “What you’re talking about is ground troops, maybe 25,000.”
Trump answered, “That’s okay. We’re going to circle it. We’re going to circle it. We’re going to have so much money. And what I would do with the money that we make, which would be tremendous. I would take care of the soldiers that were killed, the families of the soldiers that were killed, the soldiers, the wounded warriors that are — I see — I love them. And they’re walking all over the streets of New York, all over the streets of every city, without arms, without legs, and worse than that. And I would take care of them.”
Todd pressed, “So, America should take over these oil fields. [They] shouldn’t be given to the Iraqis?”
Trump added, “Well, we can give them something, but we should definitely take back money for our soldiers. We’ve had soldiers that were decimated, so badly hurt, the wounded warriors, and killed, of course. But we’ve had soldiers that were so badly hurt and killed. I want their families to get something. Because we got nothing out of that war. We spent $2 trillion, Chuck. We had thousands of people killed, wounded warriors all over the place. They got nothing, and they can’t even say we had a victory.”
Todd asked, “Who do you talk to for military advice right now?”
Trump answered, “Well, I watch the shows. I mean, I really see a lot of great — you know, when you watch your show, and all of the other shows, and you have the generals, and you have certain people –.”
Todd continued, “But is there somebody, is there a go-to for you? Every presidential candidate has a go-to.”
Trump answered, “Probably there are two or three. I like Bolton. I think he’s a tough cookie, knows what he’s talking about. Jacobs is a good guy –.”
Todd asked, “You mean Ambassador Bolton? You mean Colonel Jack Jacobs?”
Trump confirmed saying, “Colonel Jack Jacobs is a good guy, and I see him on occasion.”
Trump said he favored abortion rights in cases of rape, incest and the health of the mother “if the mother is close to death.”
“I’m talking about death,” he reiterated when Todd asked him about the health of the mother. “If the mother will die and we’re going to know that. The problem with [saying health] is, what, you have a cold and you’re having an abortion?”
Trump said he would not fund Planned Parenthood if it continued to provide abortion services. “It has to stop with the abortions,” he said, while insisting, “Women’s health issues to me are very important. I cherish women. My mother was this incredible woman. I have great children. I have a great wife. I have such great respect for women. I understand the importance of women. I have many executives in my organization that are women that frankly get paid more than many of my men executives. They’ve done great with me.”
I think I’m starting to lose my sense of humor about this guy. It’s depressing that millions of people like an utter asshole like this. It’s even more depressing that an utter asshole — and idiot — has all that money. Ugh…
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