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Was Donald Rumsfeld Really Race-Baiting Obama With 'Trained Ape' Comment?
Tom Kludt – March 25, 2014, 11:47 AM EDT | 11846
Plenty of people thought Donald Rumsfeld was race-baiting on Monday night
when he used the phrase "trained ape" to criticize the Obama administration.
What seems clear is that the former defense secretary was using one of his
favorite phrases.
During an appearance on Fox News, Rumsfeld spoke about the failure to
establish a status of forces agreement with Afghanistan.
"A trained ape could get a status of forces agreement," he said. "It does
not take a genius. And we have so mismanaged that relationship."
But Rumsfeld does not appear to have been specifically condemning President
Obama over the status of forces agreement. Right before the "trained ape"
line, he levied his criticism at a fairly broad target.
"This administration, the White House and the State Department have failed
to get a status of forces agreement," Rumsfeld said.
Only a few weeks ago, Rumsfeld employed the same word choice when he
criticized former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during an interview
with right-wing shock jock Mark Levin.
"I think I'd kind of rank [John Kerry] above his predecessor, who I can't
think of a single thing that was accomplished," Rumsfeld told Levin. "A
trained ape can get a status of forces agreement."
Rumsfeld also used the phrase repeatedly during his time in the Bush
administration.
"A trained ape can know an awful lot of what is going on in this world, just
by punching on his mouse for a relatively modest cost," he said while on a
trip to Europe in 2001.
During a July 2001 press conference, Rumsfeld said that a "trained ape can
figure out that over the coming period, more people are going to have
exceedingly powerful weapons, weapons more powerful than ever in the history
of the world, biological weapons, nuclear weapons, chemical weapons."
Moments later, Rumsfeld joked about the phrasing.
"Strike when I said 'trained ape,'" he said to laughs. "An untrained ape
should know that."
And Rumsfeld's comments on Monday hardly represent his most infamous use of
the phrase. Here he was in 2002, making the administration's case for war in
Iraq.
“There’s no debate in the world as to whether they have those weapons. We
all know that. A trained ape knows that," he said. |
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