Susan Rice calls Trump a ‘bowing monkey’ to appease Putin in Ukraine

Former U.S. national security adviser Susan Rice on Thursday delivered a criticism of Donald Trump and his foreign policy agenda aimed at placating Russian President Vladimir Putin amid the ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

“The fundamentals of national security are that America must be strong, that we must stand together with our allies, that we must stand up for our values, and that we must mean what we say. I had never been asked any serious questions before,” she said. MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell.

“And then here comes Donald Trump, who is really the Neville Chamberlain of the Republicans.” Rice continued. “He is an appeaser. He is a surrender monkey. “This is what we are seeing in his approach to Ukraine.”

During his time as British Prime Minister before World War II, Chamberlain attempted to implement a failed policy of “appeasement” to prevent Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler from expanding Germany’s control of Europe and going to war with Britain.

“I’ve seen him succumb to ridicule from Xi Jinping and many others when it served him convenient and personal benefit,” Rice said in her interview with O’Donnell, citing numerous instances in which Trump has praised the Chinese president at the White House. house.

“This is why more than 700 Democrats, Republicans, and independents — senior national security leaders — came together to oppose Donald Trump and support (Vice President) Kamala Harris,” she wrote in an open letter published last month. He continued by mentioning .

The document was signed by current and former Pentagon officials, including Republican Rep. Chuck Hagel, who served under former Democratic Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, respectively, as well as former Secretary of Defense William Cohen and former CIA Director Michael Hayden.

“These are the same people who plunged our country into endless foreign wars and profited from them while the American people suffered,” Trump spokesman Stephen Cheng told the New York Times.

Rep. Rice argued that national security could be a bipartisan middle ground.

“Until recently, foreign policy and national security played out between the 40-yard line between Democrats and Republicans,” she told O’Donnell. “There was a responsible and reasonable center.”

Secretary Rice concluded by emphasizing that Harris “has the temperament, intelligence, vision and experience to be an effective and strong commander-in-chief from the start.”