Adam Smith: ‘Donald Trump Is a Spectacularly Petty Human Being’

EXCERPT: 

SMITH: "Donald Trump is a spectacularly petty human being. Of the many things that I am just appalled by in terms of the way he conducts the presidency, this is, perhaps, the greatest. It’s the exact opposite of what John McCain personified. Look, John and I got in some really, really heated arguments, which I remember meeting with the Secretary of Defense and how we had to fund the defense budget. At the time, they were talking doing the tax cut. I said you can’t cut taxes by $2 trillion. John went ballistic about things, went back and forth. As we were walking out, he said 'sorry, I shouldn’t have been so tough on you.' Yeah, he was speaking out for what he cared about. Donald Trump cares about one thing, that’s the thing that looks back at him in the mirror in the morning. I heard Republicans saying if he came out and praised McCain, people would call him a hypocrite. Look, this isn’t hard. In public life, you always have people passing away who you disagreed with. Donald Trump could have said, look, there’s no secret John McCain and I had our differences, but I recognize a patriot when I see one and recognize someone who served this country. I didn’t agree with everything he did, but his dedication to public service, service in Vietnam, six years in a prisoner of war camp, you have to admire that. Our President can’t get past his own pettiness to praise somebody who deserves it, even in that balanced way. You don’t have to endorse their entire life to recognize what they did was right. In John McCain, there’s plenty to praise in that regard."