Condoleezza Rice to Trump: ‘Unpredictable is OK,’ but ‘watch your rhetoric’ – By Anna Giaritelli (washingtonexaminer.com) / Oct 10 2017
Former State Secretary Condoleezza Rice said Tuesday that President Trump’s unpredictability in dealing with foreign affairs was a good thing, but warned that his word choice should be altered to keep tensions from escalating.
“Unpredictable is OK. You want, however, to watch your rhetoric,” Rice said in an interview with Fox News. “I can remember in crisis after crisis, your rhetoric gets hotter and hotter, escalates more and more and more. Really, it just puts an environment around the problem that’s hard to get it solved.”
“So I fully understand what the president’s saying. The North Koreans with the nuclear weapons. Unacceptable,” she added. “The North Korean leader is a rather odd character and the United States will not accept it. But having said that, I think it’s time to step back and let the diplomacy work.”
Rice, who was President George W. Bush’s secretary of state, admitted she does not know the inner workings of Trump’s relationship with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, she said it is critical for both men to be united in their approach to North Korea.
“It’s really important for the president and secretary of state to be on the same page and have a good relationship,” Rice said. “The last thing the secretary of state wants to be is out on the road when the president seems not to back that secretary of state because the whole world knows and then you really don’t have the leverage you need to get things done on behalf of the United States.”
“I have the impression that Rex Tillerson is going about his business. He’s working hard on Ukraine,” she added. “He’s working very hard on the North Korea issue — starting to get some results. Countries are saying they are going to isolate North Korea. Countries are pulling back their ambassadors. So sometimes in Washington, you know this as well as I do, sometimes there’s a lot of drama, but underneath things are going on. I know Rex Tillerson. He’s a strong person.”
PB/TK – Raise your hand if you prefer a leveled headed POTUS Condi who’s only true flaw is being a Cleveland Browns fan
