He cannot learn. They must not be allowed to normalize this lunacy

He cannot learn.

by digby


Trump on China trade talks: "If they don't do what we want, we have tremendous power." ...
One minute later: "China should start an investigation into the Bidens."

— David Nakamura (@DavidNakamura) October 3, 2019




Wow. Here's Trump making a veiled threat that China should start investigating the Bidens because "I'm sure President XI does not like being under that kind of scrutiny ... they call that a payoff." pic.twitter.com/WhJN4gn1yW

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 3, 2019


Wow. Here's Trump making a veiled threat that China should start investigating the Bidens because "I'm sure President XI does not like being under that kind of scrutiny ... they call that a payoff." pic.twitter.com/WhJN4gn1yW

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 3, 2019


Here's the transcript:

THE PRESIDENT: Well, we’re looking at a lot of different things. China is coming in next week. We’re going to have a meeting with them. We’ll see. But we’re doing very well.

Some of the numbers, I think, are being affected by all of the nonsense, all of the politics going on in this country by the Democrats. I call them the “Do-nothings.” They do nothing for this country. They don’t care about this country. But the numbers, really, are looking very good, going into the future.

So, we’ll see. I have a lot of options on China. But if they don’t do what we want, we have tremendous — tremendous power.

Q Mr. President, what exactly did you hope Zelensky would do about the Bidens after your phone call? Exactly.

THE PRESIDENT: Well, I would think that, if they were honest about it, they’d start a major investigation into the Bidens. It’s a very simple answer.

They should investigate the Bidens, because how does a company that’s newly formed — and all these companies, if you look at —

And, by the way, likewise, China should start an investigation into the Bidens, because what happened in China is just about as bad as what happened with — with Ukraine.

So, I would say that President Zelensky — if it were me, I would recommend that they start an investigation into the Bidens. Because nobody has any doubt that they weren’t crooked. That was a crooked deal — 100 percent. He had no knowledge of energy; didn’t know the first thing about it. All of a sudden, he is getting $50,000 a month, plus a lot of other things. Nobody has any doubt.

And they got rid of a prosecutor who was a very tough prosecutor. They got rid of him. Now they’re trying to make it the opposite way. But they got rid —

So, if I were the President, I would certainly recommend that of Ukraine.

Q Have you asked President Xi to investigate at all?

THE PRESIDENT: I haven’t, but it’s certainly something we can start thinking about. Because I’m sure that President Xi does not like being under that kind of scrutiny, where billions of dollars is taken out his country by a guy that just got kicked out of the Navy. He got kicked out of the Navy; all of a sudden, he’s getting billions of dollars. You know what they call that? They call that a “payoff.”
[...]

Q Mr. President, Vice President Biden — Vice President Biden said that he’s not going anywhere. He has said that you’re not going to destroy his family. What do — what’s your response?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, I think Biden is going down. And I think his whole situation — because now you may very well find that there are many other countries that they scammed, just like they scammed China and Ukraine. And basically, who are they really scamming? The USA. And it’s not good.

Q He said he was carrying out the official policy —

THE PRESIDENT:And that’s probably why China, for so many years, has had a sweetheart deal where China rips off the USA — because they deal like people with Biden, where they give their son a billion and a half dollars. And that’s probably why China has such a sweetheart deal that, for so many years, they’ve been ripping off our country.

That's right. It's incoherent (did "the Bidens" rip off China or did they get a "payoff" or did they do a deal with China to destroy the US? So hard to know...)


But the fact is --- HE DID IT AGAIN. He asked yet another foreign adversary to involve itself in the US election. He simply does not believe that it'sa problem and his Republican accomplices are fine with it too.

When all the smoke has cleared, where do we end up with all this? It isn't entirely clear to me that we can repair this with the Republicans all deciding its fine to betray the country.

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