CNN Newsroom host and former Obama State Department official Jim Sciutto, along with former Clinton Defense Secretary William Cohen, came up with a new reason to support the Democrats’ massive partisan spending bill on Thursday: American foreign policy depends on it.
If that seems like a leap in logic, Sciutto tried to explain: “You know the importance of the president’s domestic agenda as he comes here to this key international summit. The president has said as much to lawmakers. He needs these plans in place, not only to have a climate change plan because that’s top of the agenda here at G-20 and next week in Scotland, but also to show that the U.S. democratic system can work.”
Sciutto also claimed, “That’s crucial to his success and to America’s pitch in effect to the world,” and wondered: “How much would the president be diminished as he arrives here in Rome without an agreement in place?”
Cohen, who was at one time a Republican senator in the United States, said that it is important to pass partisan Democratic legislation, and not only for climate change but also to fight our adversaries.
Well, I think it’s not only the president who would be diminished. I think United States would be diminished. I think everyone knows in the G-20 and elsewhere knows President Biden has said America is back. Well, America may be back as far as President Biden is concerned but if the Congress is not with him, that means our government is basically dysfunctional and that will undercut not only President Biden, it will undercut America’s leadership throughout the world because it’s certainly not going to come from Russia, China, or any other country.
If America is to be a truly great country, Cohen argued, Congress needs to fall in line: “It has to come from the United States and if the president doesn’t have the backing of Congress, it sends a signal that Joe Biden may be back, but America is not back.”
Sciutto as well Cohen are massive hypocrites. While Donald Trump was president they didn’t urge Congress to approve his domestic agenda. They wanted to prove to the world the system wasn’t broken. They did not claim that impeachment would “undercut” him or America’s leadership on the world stage. More partisan talk disguised as foreign policy analysis.
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The transcript of the show on December 28, 2008 is available here:
CNN Newsroom with PoppyHarlow and Jim Sciutto
10:00 AM ET
JIM SCIUTTO: You know the importance of the president’s domestic agenda as he comes here to this key international summit. The president has said as much to lawmakers. He needs these plans in place, not only to have a climate change plan because that’s top of the agenda here at G-20 and next week in Scotland, but also to show that the U.S. democratic system can work. That’s crucial to his success and to America’s pitch in effect to the world. How much would the president be diminished as he arrives here in Rome without an agreement in place?
WILLIAM COHEN: Well, I think it’s not only the president who would be diminished. I think United States would be diminished. I think everyone knows in the G-20 and elsewhere knows President Biden has said America is back. Well, America may be back as far as President Biden is concerned but if the Congress is not with him, that means our government is basically dysfunctional and that will undercut not only President Biden, it will undercut America’s leadership throughout the world because it’s certainly not going to come from Russia, China, or any other country. It has to come from the United States and if the president doesn’t have the backing of Congress, it sends a signal that Joe Biden may be back, but America is not back.
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