Tapper Calls out Trump: ‘Equating Brutality and Despotism with Leadership’ Are Not American Values

RUSH EXCERPT:
TAPPER: "Kim Jong-un had his uncle murdered. That doesn’t make him a smart cookie but a murderer. The president said he would be, quote, honored to meet with Kim and he’s not the only brutal dictator he’s reached out to over the weekend. President Trump had had a very friendly conversation with the president of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte who has engaged in rampant crimes against humanity we extra judicial killings of at least 7,000 Filipino citizens by police. He’s personally dragged about committing some of these murders himself and have said that some journalists should be assassinated. President Trump invited Duterte to the White House. This is all of a piece and he called President Erdogan on his recent power grab and said kind words for Vladimir Putin and called the despots who caused the Tiananmen Square massacre as strong. Equating despotism and brutality with leadership, that is not an American value. Ronald Reagan once noted how our declaration of Independence, especially the notion that each and every individual is endowed by our creator with certain unalienable rights. That’s a beacon to the world. Rage Owen said our creed as Americans is the human rights are the property of every man, woman and child on this planet and that a violation of human rights anywhere is the business of free people everywhere, unquote. Whatever happened to that? The president’s praise of dictators and their, quote, strength precedes his presidency but his recent expression of desire for more power seem rooted in his recent frustration over the health care bill."