This is the problem with foreign policy - talking about foreign policy in a political context. Politics is binary. People win and lose elections. Legislation passes or doesn't pass. And in foreign policy often what you're doing is nuance and you're trying to prevent something worse from happening. It doesn't translate well into a political environment.
David CornI think choosing Steve Bannon as a chief strategist this is a stunning, historic decision for Donald Trump in a bad way. Stephen Bannon has said - and you`ve got to lay this out a little bit so people understand it - that he wanted Breitbart, the news service, the far-right news service, to be a platform for the alt-right.
David CornThere`s a guy named Richard Spencer, who is the intellectual guru of the movement, according to Breitbart and he says, basically - this is the benign version - that he wants to convince non-whites to leave America because the races can`t get along and it`s better if they`re separate. This is a guy who is of the alt-right movement that Steve Bannon made common cause with.
David CornWhen Hillary Clinton was in the Clinton White House as first lady, the left - the right accused her of being wide eyed radical lesbian feminist and in some issues, like welfare reform, she pushed back against the new .
David CornBefore the election, I reported on a story about a counterintelligence officer from another service sending reports to the FBI saying that his sources in Russia were saying that Moscow tried for years to cultivate and co-opt Donald Trump. I'm not saying that happened. I'm saying I hope the FBI took a strong look, because it is really hard to believe that a president-elect would be so callous in how he approaches this issue and so dismissive of the seriousness of it.
David Corn