Page 434 - Predecessors News Today

You worked for a president and a white house, and a vice president, and had those, you know, secret and private discussions a lot of us are never privy to. my sense, though, is that they do care a lot more about the former occupants of the office even beyond party than others. we know about the tradition of not doing named criticism. i want to play for you president trumps named references to one of his predecessors, who he seems to think about a lot. take a listen. >> barack obama when he was p...

Predecessors, a sense of tradition and bipartisanship. not, you know, im now president, im now going to attack everyone who went before me. that is really what a third-world country looks like. you take over, my country, my administration, my government, we trash everyone else to try to elevate yourself. that is not really how a constitutional democracy is supposed to work. its an informal norm. its not a law, obviously. but its a kind of important informal norm to try to preserve some civility ...

Always about him and he can never be wrong. those two qualities ultimately will defeat him. in the meantime, its a shame for the country and these families. its a shame that he would sully his predecessors this way. >> and yet david guerrero began, david ax ron said its a shame for -- the president is without shame. theres nothing off limits when it comes to he feels hes being attacked or asked a question. i guess in this case he felt a question about why he hasnt spoken publicly about the publi...

>> he didnt like the question being asked of him. he interpreted it as a hostile question so he pivoted on blaming predecessors. who he ask saying did not call or did not do exactly as he did. >> but what is the lie? >> he is saying something which is factually incorrect. >> i dont understand what it is? >> he said past presidents never called and when a reporter fact checked him on the spot. >> he proved it. >> no. >> never called? >> never called? thats absolutely not true. lets stop this. thi...

Response is this is an official white house conversation. they wont give us a transcript. the president can tweet without staff approval. >> what was so striking, the president feels like he has to defend himself against this charge of the unflattering account of the conversation. he didnt take the opportunity from front of all the reporters and he has to know he has a broad audience when hes in the white house meeting with senators and being asked these questions. he didnt take the opportunity ...

>> i did not say what she said. i had a very nice conversation with the woman, with the wife who sounded like a lovely woman. did not say what the congresswoman said -- and most people arent too surprised to hear that. [ inaudible question ] >> let her make her statement again and then youll find out. >> reporter: wilson, a florida democrat, stood by her account. the soldiers mother also telling cnn the congresswomans recollection was very accurate. when asked if she was shocked by the president...

Inexperience. it may be tray a little bit of the man who has difficulty expressing empathy which we have seen in other circumstances as well. >> what do you make of his decision to defend what he did here by saying other presidents didnt always do the right thing essentially? which is largely untrue, right? >> yeah. actually, im more offended by that than i was the president having difficulty finding the right words in a very difficult circumstance. here for his own political defense he tried to...

I want to ask more questions, is that exactly how it was heard. regardless, how he handled this whole thing is up dignified. especially when it revolves around your predecessors. you want to treat your predecessors with some tkefrps. this is a delicate matter how you contact family members. nobody has experience in doing this. all of a sudden youre president of the united states. you are responsible for making decisions that could lead to the death of those in the armed forces. nobody has any ex...

Trump falsely said his predecessors is never called gold star familis. the story took another unfortunate turn last night when sergeant la david johnsons body arrived in florida. the democratic congresswoman with the widow says the president called to offer condolences but she says he chose horrible words. >> never said the word hero. he said to the wife, well, i guess he knew what he was getting into. how insensitive can you be? >> i did hear him say im sure he knew what he was signing up for. ...

The grace to be able to say anything they want to say. and presidents just try to find the words to console them. they dont always do it perfectly. its a very human and raw event. i agree with you. lets have some respect and some privacy around thaoe these conversation. >> dana: mary anne? >> this day never had to happen. this never had to become public. the fact is donald trump, had he just addressed this the way he should have, which was quickly and privately, we would not be talking about it....