Fmr DefSec Robert Gates Says No GOP President He Worked for Would ‘Recognize the Republican Party Today’
Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates expressed dismay at the direction of the Republican party and said none of the Republican presidents he served under would recognize the GOP in its current iteration.
Gates spoke with CBS News’ John Dickerson about violence in the Middle East and President Joe Biden’s foreign policy before the big lie about the 2020 election came up.
“If you were analyzing the political structure of the United States as a CIA analyst,” Dickerson asked, “and the minority party believed that [and] the majority of the voters in that party believe that the president was illegitimate, how would you assess the stability of the political organization of that country?”
“I would have serious concerns about the future,” Gates responded. “I worked for eight presidents, five of them were Republicans. I don’t think any of them would recognize the Republican party today.”
“In terms of the values and the principles that the Republican Party stood for under those five presidents are hard to find these days.”
Dickerson asked if the Capitol riots and the continued push of these baseless claims about the election “gives an opportunity to America’s enemies to say America is a declining power.”
“I think there is that, but I think it’s also broader than that,” Gates said.
He brought up comments from the president of China in particular as he said, “We are an aspirational country and we’ve kind of lost that message, it seems to me.”
At one point Gates noted comments from some congressional Republicans saying there’s only a handful of members who actually believe those false election claims.
“Part of this is political gaming rather than a real conviction,” he added.
“Isn’t that playing footsie with some very dangerous stuff?” Dickerson asked.
“Totally. It’s very dangerous,” Gates responded.
He commended Liz Cheney as “very courageous” and called her a person “of real integrity.”
You can watch above (the relevant part starts at the 26:30 mark), via CBS.
