Whitman Says "Trump Is Clearly Unfit To Remain In Office"

While congressional Republicans are too scared to tell the truth about Donald Trump -- putting their own political careers above the good of the country -- a few other Republicans are beginning to speak out. One of them is the Republican ex-governor of New Jersey and former administrator of the EPA, Christine Todd Whitman (pictured).

This is just a bit of what she wrote in the Los Angeles Times:

President Trump’s disgraceful performance in Helsinki, Finland, and in the days since is an indication that he is not fit to remain in office. Trump’s 2016 “America First” platform might be more aptly named “Russia First” after the disaster that occurred last week.

Trump’s turn toward Russia is indefensible. I am a lifelong Republican. I have campaigned and won as a member of the party, and I have served more than one Republican president. My Republican colleagues — once rightfully critical of President Obama’s engagement strategy with Russian leader Vladimir Putin — have to end their willful ignorance of the damage Trump is doing both domestically and internationally. We must put aside the GOP label, as hard as that may be, and demonstrate the leadership our country needs by calling on the president to step down.

Trump’s sycophantic relationship with Putin is unsurprising given his previous comments about Russia and its dictator. What is shocking is how long he has possessed — and disregarded — hard evidence of Putin’s direct role in undermining our elections. According to New York Times reporting, he saw dispositive emails and texts early in January 2017. . . .

Trump’s avowed respect for the word of a dictator who has spent decades undermining the U.S. and its allies is utterly dangerous. Putin is not our ally. Despite the president’s dismal attempt to change the narrative by explaining that he misspoke in Helsinki, the pattern is clear: As a candidate and as president, he has constantly praised Putin just as he has constantly undercut the core institutions of our democracy — the courts, the media and the FBI. He has a history of discrediting members of his own Cabinet and the agencies they lead. These are not the actions of someone who should be navigating delicate diplomatic discussions and setting foreign policy.

If the president did genuinely misspeak on Monday, it demonstrates his inability to articulate accurately U.S. foreign policy at the highest level, for the highest stakes. As the leader of the free world — as ridiculous as that title sounds when applied to Trump — his words matter. If he cannot take his place at a podium next to an adversarial foreign leader and stand up for America’s interests and principles, he should not be president.