Would Donald Trump Be a Dangerous President?
The Inquiry
BBC
4.6 • 1.7K Ratings
🗓️ 23 August 2016
⏱️ 23 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Earlier this month 50 senior Republican national security officials signed a letter arguing that Donald Trump “lacks the character, values and experience” to lead the United States. “We are convinced”, they wrote, “he would be a dangerous president”. We want to know if they are right.
Our expert witnesses are: Timothy O’Brien, author of The Art of Being The Donald; Peter Feaman, Florida representative for the Republican National Committee; Daniel Drezner, professor of international politics at Tufts; and Elaine Kamarck from the Brookings Institution, an expert on presidential power and its limits.
(Photo: Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during an event at Trump SoHo Hotel, 2016, New York. Credit: Getty Images)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You're listening to the inquiry with me, Helena Merriman. |
| 0:07.0 | Joining us on the line right now is John Bellinger. In the early hours of Monday the 8th. the |
| 0:14.0 | only legal advisor to the early hours of Monday the 8th of August |
| 0:16.0 | John Bellinger the former legal advisor to the US National Security Council |
| 0:20.0 | appeared on an American radio show, mornings on the mall. |
| 0:24.4 | Good morning to you, John. How are you? |
| 0:26.8 | It started out pretty friendly, but Bellinger was about to answer some tough questions. |
| 0:31.5 | He'd spent the previous few weeks wringing around some of the |
| 0:34.8 | most senior Republicans in the US, former intelligence chiefs and national security advisors, |
| 0:40.7 | trying to persuade them to sign a controversial letter. |
| 0:45.0 | To his surprise, he got 50 people on board, including the former head of the CIA, |
| 0:52.0 | and that morning they'd of the CIA. |
| 0:52.6 | And that morning, they'd release the letter, |
| 0:55.4 | warning that Donald Trump would make a dangerous president. |
| 1:00.6 | This morning on world news now. |
| 1:02.0 | Donald Trump losing support from within his own party. |
| 1:05.0 | Today 50 presidentially appointed national security officials |
| 1:10.0 | signed a letter sounding the alarm over the prospect of a Donald Trump presidency. |
| 1:14.7 | Saying he would make the most reckless president in American history. |
| 1:20.3 | Donald Trump was quick to respond. |
| 1:23.0 | These were just the bitter words of a failed Washington elite, he said, |
| 1:27.0 | struggling to hold on to its influence. |
... |
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