Susan Rice says Trump chooses Putin over American troops [Video]

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

• Susan Rice, the former Ambassador of the United States to the United Nations, said on Sunday that President Donald Trump picks Russian President Vladimir Putin over U.S. troops in Afghanistan “even when it comes to the blood of American service members.”
• The statement comes after intelligence reports that Russia offered bounties for US and coalition service members in Afghanistan and yet President Trump chose Putin
• These are all that Trump has done ever since denying Russian interference in the 2016 elections, according to Rice — removing a third of the US troops in Germany, inviting Russia to join the G7, and siding with Putin during the 2018 Helsinki summit.

Susan Rice, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, believes that President Donald Trump has made things clear with where his priority lies.  That despite intelligence that Russia was offering bounties to Taliban-linked militants to kill U.S. troops and coalition service members in Afghanistan, still, Trump chose Putin and not the American service members.

Rice said, “The message to Vladimir Putin is you can kill American servicemen and women with absolute impunity. This is an extraordinary revelation.”

Rice also cited that “everything (Trump) has done since” his denial of the intelligence community’s findings of Russian interference in the 2016 election, has benefited Russia.  This includes Trump removing a third of U.S. troops from Germany, inviting Russia to join the G7, and “standing up” for Putin against the FBI at the 2018 Helsinki Summit in Finland.

All these actions, Rice considers as “callous disregard for the safety and security of American forces in a war zone and there’s no explanation for this”

Although intelligence reports are “very, very rarely” proven with “100 percent certainty” after administration officials have claimed the intelligence was contradictory, the former national security adviser admitted. 

Rice further said that if White House advisers did not inform Trump of the intelligence last year, she thinks it would be “because they’re scared of him.”

Rice added, “Now we learn that even when it comes to the blood of American service members, this president picks Putin over our troops.”

Rice is a strong contender for presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden’s vice-presidential pick.

Source: The Hill