1. Trumpism

Missing America

Crooked Media

Society & Culture, News, Politics

4.8 • 2.8K Ratings

🗓️ 11 August 2020

⏱️ 41 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The life-altering events of this spring illustrate why the world needs leadership to overcome international crises... and what happens when there’s none. COVID-19 exposed the fatal consequences of Trump’s “America First” policies which reject global alliances and cooperation. But then, America’s Black Lives Matter movement led to an international wave of activism that brought the global conversation back to human rights... where we need America to lead once again. Host Ben Rhodes talks to Susan Rice, Samantha Power, and progressive activists abroad, about the successes, failures, and ultimately the necessity of U.S. leadership. For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/missingamerica.

Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Ben Rhodes. On January 20th, 2017, I left the White House for the final time. I was
0:10.6	exhausted, physically and emotionally, from eight years as a foreign policy adviser and
0:16.6	speed trader. I flew with the Obama's on their final flight aboard Air Force One. We dropped
0:23.0	them off in California, set our goodbyes, and then flew back over the country. There were
0:28.9	only a few of us on board. My head was full of memories from the years gone by and a sense of
0:34.6	despair of how it ended. For those few hours, it felt like I was suspended in time between two
0:41.4	presidencies, flying through the American darkness on the most famous airplane in the world.
0:48.2	We landed in Washington just as dawn was breaking. And then, almost immediately, President Trump
0:55.2	set out to destroy everything I worked on. President Trump's major announcement today, pulling the
1:00.7	US out of the Iran nuclear deal. President Trump reversing some of the Obama-era policies toward
1:05.8	Cuba. The United States will withdraw from the Paris climate accord. Every morning, I'd wake up in
1:14.2	fear of getting another noozler down my phone. Another sledgehammer to an agreement, a treaty,
1:19.8	a promise we made. Instead of leading the free world, Trump was trying to dismantle it,
1:25.6	along with everything I believed in. At the same time, I started traveling from Europe to Asia,
1:32.8	from Africa to Latin America. I saw the inculcurable damage that Trump was doing. But I also met
1:39.6	progressive activists and politicians who were fighting to make things better. They were doing
1:45.2	amazing work, which gave me hope. And they wanted America back in the fight with them, on their
1:52.2	side, which also gave me hope. So, I started recording our conversations. This is a podcast about
2:00.3	what happens to the world, when America betrays the values that we are supposed to stand for.
2:06.1	And with an election just a few months away, we'll hear about what we need to do to be the country
2:11.1	we should be. The country, the world needs us to be. This is missing America. Over the next nine
2:22.1	episodes, I'll introduce you to some of the inspiring people like men. How Hong Kong people
	...

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