Philip Rucker and Carol Leonnig on 'A Very Stable Genius'
The Lawfare Podcast
The Lawfare Institute
4.7 • 6.4K Ratings
🗓️ 29 February 2020
⏱️ 46 minutes
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Summary
Philip Rucker and Carol Leonnig are reporters at The Washington Post and the authors of the new book, 'A Very Stable Genius: Donald J. Trump's Testing of America.' This week, Susan Hennessey sat down with Rucker and Leonnig to talk about the new book, the president's interactions with his cabinet, his attitude toward the law, and the efficacy of his public attacks.
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Transcript
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| 0:25.6 | no bull and the aftermath. |
| 0:33.9 | He's the duly elected president and they had an opportunity to serve and wanted to help |
| 0:38.2 | him get better and help him learn. |
| 0:40.9 | And what they have found is that as they've resigned or been fired over time, they've |
| 0:45.3 | been replaced by an abours. |
| 0:47.0 | They're not replaced by new guardrails. |
| 0:49.4 | I mean, Rex Tillerson is out and in his place as Secretary of State is Mike Pompeo, |
| 0:55.6 | who not only has tried to enforce and enact and execute the president's will all around |
| 1:01.6 | the world, but enabled Rudy Giuliani to be a shadow diplomat in Ukraine. |
| 1:06.3 | You know, John Kelly saw himself as a human guardrail inside the West Wing and he's |
| 1:10.7 | been replaced by an acting White House chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, who is basically |
| 1:15.2 | a yes man and gets everything the president wants done, including withholding the aid |
| 1:20.5 | to Ukraine. |
| 1:22.1 | And so it's a different environment now and I think these people who served initially |
| 1:26.9 | recognized that had they resigned in month one. |
| 1:30.2 | They might have been replaced by an abours right away and so, you know, that Matt has |
| 1:34.3 | stayed on for two years. |
| 1:36.0 | He would probably defend that and feel like he protected a lot in those two years. |
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