In a highly anticipated interview with Rachel Maddow on Thursday, Hillary Clinton responded to Donald Trump’s reckless behavior with respect to North Korea, telling him to “get over the Twitter stuff” and get on with being commander-in-chief.
Clinton laid out what Trump should be doing to deal with North Korea, showing off her vast foreign policy knowledge and urging the president to stay off social media and start working.
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Clinton to Trump: ‘Get over the Twitter stuff’ and start being commander-in-chief #Maddow pic.twitter.com/yDF1SRex3C
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— Sean Colarossi (@SeanColarossi) September 15, 2017
Diplomacy with North Korea is complicated. It requires people who know the language, the customs, the history. We have decimated our State Department. Foreign service officers with decades of experience have either been ignored or, in some cases, pushed so hard that they have resigned. Right now, we need the best people we can possibly muster to have a full court press on diplomacy. … [Kim Jong-un] is not deterred. And that’s what I mean about all the tough talk that we hear from our president really actually playing right into Kim Jong-un’s hands. And that’s what I mean when I say he’s been played, and this is a clear and present danger and if it’s allowed to go forward we will face even worse choices. That’s why right now we need smart, diplomatic intervention. … This needs to be happening right now. Get over the Twitter stuff and get on to the diplomatic negotiations.Â
Clinton’s comments come just hours after it was reported that North Korea launched yet another missile over Japan’s air space – the second one in less than a month – in the latest sign that Trump’s strategy of tough talk isn’t working.
Over the course of his presidency, Trump has portrayed himself as the strongman that instills fear in America’s enemies, but North Korea’s continued aggression is showing just how empty and failed that strategy is.
The North Korean leader doesn’t fear Trump; he is emboldened by him.
Like the 2016 popular voter winner said on Thursday, perhaps the president should focus less on blowing hot air on Twitter and more on building a foreign policy that can adequately deal with the immediate threat North Korea is posing.
Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.
