Amb. Pickering: Trump ‘Has Had a Clearly Soft Spot in His Heart for President Putin’

EXCERPT:

PICKERING: "I think the president in his own way, for reasons we don’t fully understand but may come out later in the wash, so to speak, as we watch this, has had a clearly soft spot in his heart for President Putin. If he had a plan and strategy in a way of moving ahead and a way to exploit it, it would be very helpful. But it doesn’t. It just seems to be there. And that's really quite interesting and the question mark over that is important. The second piece here is that the rest of the government seems to be operating on an entirely different track, a demonization of Russia. So we have a bilateral split not unusual in this administration but something that really could have serious consequences if we’re not careful in dealing with it and why I say that this is a kind of game of chicken in which there’s no exit ramp. There is no way off the highway as the two cars race at each other. And that is something we have to look the at."