Through the Looking Glass with Mike Doran, Part I
The Lawfare Podcast
The Lawfare Institute
4.7 • 6.4K Ratings
🗓️ 2 January 2018
⏱️ 42 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Michael Doran and Benjamin Wittes have an extended conversation about Trump, Russia, and how Doran parted ways with his many colleagues who became #NeverTrump conservatives. Doran is a former Brookings scholar now at the Hudson Institute who served in the George W. Bush White House, at the State Department, and at the Pentagon. Doran is unusual among Washington foreign policy and national security experts in being vocally supportive of President Trump and dismissive of the Trump-Russia allegations. This part of the discussion deals with how Doran broke with the Never Trumpers, how he sees the President, and how he sees the Russia investigation in broad strokes.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The following podcast contains advertising. |
| 0:04.0 | To access an ad-free version of the LawFair podcast, |
| 0:08.0 | become a material supporter of LawFair at patreon.com slash law fair. |
| 0:14.0 | That's patreon.com slash law fair. |
| 0:18.0 | Also, check out LawFair's other podcast offerings, |
| 0:22.0 | rational security, chatter, law fair no bull, and the aftermath. |
| 0:29.0 | Okay, we got it wrong. |
| 0:35.0 | Do we admit we were wrong? |
| 0:37.0 | Do we try to reestablish some kind of relationship with Trump? |
| 0:41.0 | Or do we double down on the calculation that we made? |
| 0:44.0 | And they double down on it. |
| 0:45.0 | So they said to themselves, |
| 0:46.0 | we got it wrong about the coming disaster. |
| 0:50.0 | We thought it was going to be in the election. |
| 0:52.0 | Our timing was wrong, but our basic analysis was 100% correct. |
| 0:56.0 | The disaster is coming. |
| 0:58.0 | And now we are the guardians of virtue and purity guarding the castle. |
| 1:03.0 | And we'll be around to pick up the pieces after the destruction comes. |
| 1:06.0 | Psychologically and emotionally, they're invested in Trump's defeat. |
| 1:10.0 | And that's one of the reasons why they grabbed it. |
| 1:12.0 | Psychological reasons why they grabbed hold of the Trump Russia collusion. |
| 1:16.0 | I'm Benjamin Widis and this is the LawFair podcast, |
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