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John Mccain Becomes Critics In Chief Of The Trump Administration by EYIBLESSN(m): 1:40pm On Feb 20, 2017 |
017
WASHINGTON — Senator John McCain
has long had a reputation as a
political maverick. But with the rise of
a president who has vowed to shatter
the old order, Mr. McCain has
emerged as an outspoken defender of
longstanding Republican verities on
foreign policy and as one of his
party’s most biting critics of the new
commander in chief.
Newly re-elected to a six-year term
and eager to wield the megaphone
that comes with the chairmanship of
the powerful Armed Services
Committee, Mr. McCain has repeatedly
pushed back on the White House’s
national security policies in its first
weeks.
In a star turn at a security conference
in Munich on Friday, he delivered a
forceful critique of President Trump’s
“America First” vision before a
receptive audience of experts and
allied officials worried about
American drift from a seven-decade-
old Western alliance.
“Make no mistake, my friends, these
are dangerous times,” Mr. McCain
said. “But you should not count
America out, and we should not count
each other out.”
Nor did Mr. McCain hesitate to
puncture Mr. Trump’s insistence that
his White House is operating like a
“fine-tuned machine.”
“In many respects, this administration
is in disarray, and they’ve got a lot of
work to do,” he said.
A day later, in an interview for “Meet
the Press,” Mr. McCain challenged Mr.
Trump’s contention that the news
media is “the enemy of the American
people.”
“The first thing that dictators do is
shut down the press,” he said, adding
that while he was not calling the
president a dictator, “we need to learn
the lessons of history.”
For a senator who supports free trade,
backs NATO, remains deeply
suspicious of Russian intentions and
has favored an assertive foreign
policy, including the war in Iraq, the
differences with Mr. Trump have been
profound.
“The principles that Senator McCain
has espoused have animated American
foreign policy for decades,” said
Richard Fontaine, a former foreign
policy adviser to Mr. McCain who
currently serves as president of the
Center for a New American Security, a
policy research center. “It’s the
political context in Washington that
has changed.”
But there seems to be a personal
element, too, particularly on the part
of Mr. Trump. The tensions go back to
the Republican primaries, when Mr.
Trump offered a belittling rejoinder to
Mr. McCain’s remark that the
candidate’s immigration policies had
attracted “crazies.”
“I like people that weren’t captured,”
Mr. Trump said of Mr. McCain, 80,
who was held for more than five years
as a prisoner of war in Vietnam and
was tortured while in captivity.
After Mr. Trump won the Republican
nomination, Mr. McCain walked a fine
line while campaigning for re-
election. The senator did not attend
the Republican National Convention,
but said he would back his party’s
nominee. He then withdrew that
support in October after a recording
was disclosed in which Mr. Trump
made lewd comments about women.
Immediately after Mr. Trump’s
election, Mr. McCain held his fire and
appeared determined to let the new
administration take shape. “I will not
talk about Donald Trump ,” he barked
at a group of reporters in November.
But after weeks in which the White
House has blindsided the public, and
sometimes much of the government,
with executive orders and sent mixed
messages on major foreign policy
issues, Mr. McCain has let loose.
Denouncing Russia for “interfering” in
the presidential election, Mr. McCain
has called for the formation of a select
Senate committee to investigate the
Kremlin’s cyberactivities. He has also
chastised Mr. Trump for a comment in
which he seemed to equate the actions
of President Vladimir V. Putin of
Russia with those of the United States.
“That moral equivalency is a
contradiction of everything the United
States has ever stood for in the 20th
and 21st centuries,” Mr. McCain said
on “Meet the Press.”
Along with Senator Lindsey Graham,
Republican of South Carolina, he has
criticized Mr. Trump’s executive order
on travel from seven predominantly
Muslim countries as a “self-inflicted
wound” that would alienate Muslim
partners in the fight against
extremists.
After reports surfaced that Mr. Trump
had engaged in a heated phone call
with Australia’s prime minister, Mr.
McCain placed his own call to Joe
Hockey, Australia’s ambassador to
Washington, and then put out a
statement noting that he had
underscored “unwavering support for
the U.S.-Australian alliance.”
Mr. Trump’s decision to withdraw
from the Trans-Pacific Partnership , a
vast trade deal, Mr. McCain said,
“creates an opening for China.” He
has also warned the White House
against trying to use torture as an
interrogation technique, pointing out
that legislation he sponsored in 2015
made those techniques illegal.
And while he is a strong supporter of
two retired Marine generals in the
administration — Jim Mattis, the
defense secretary, and John F. Kelly,
the homeland security secretary — he
was the lone Republican to vote
against Mick Mulvaney, Mr. Trump’s
pick for budget chief.
On the Senate floor, Mr. McCain
complained that Mr. Mulvaney had
supported military spending cuts that
seriously weakened the armed forces.
Mr. McCain has also complained
loudly about the role of Stephen K.
Bannon, the president’s chief political
strategist, on the National Security
Council.
All this blunt talk has not come
without some pushback. This month,
Mr. Trump blasted Mr. McCain for his
criticism of a risky Special Operations
raid in Yemen in which a Navy SEAL
was killed. “He’s been losing so long
he doesn’t know how to win
anymore,” Mr. Trump said on Twitter.
Senator Rand Paul, Republican of
Kentucky, said on Sunday that Mr.
McCain had a “personal dispute” with
Mr. Trump and criticized what he
called the senator’s eagerness to use
military force.
“I would say John McCain has been
wrong on just about everything over
the last four decades,” Mr. Paul said
on the ABC News program “This
Week.” “We’re very lucky John
McCain’s not in charge because I think
we’d be in perpetual war.”
If the opening month of the
administration is any indication,
there may be perpetual conflict —
between senator and president. |
Re: John Mccain Becomes Critics In Chief Of The Trump Administration by BUHARIISCURSED(m): 1:42pm On Feb 20, 2017 |
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