Tuesday at the U.S. Institute of Peace’s Passing the Baton event, Secretary of State John Kerry without naming him criticized President-elect Donald Trump’s use of Twitter saying “If policy is gonna be made in 140 characters on Twitter and every reasonable measurement of accountability is being bypassed and people don’t care about it, we have a problem.”
Kerry said, “One of the greatest challenges we all face right now, not just America but every country in the world, is we are living in a fact-less political environment. And every country in the world better stop and start worrying about authoritarian populism and the absence of substance in our dialogue, if you call it that. There is a long, well-defined history of what happens when you have economic fear and pressure, and a level of exploitation of those fears, coupled with sectarian or ethnic exploitation and a kind of simplistic, sloganeering politics.”
He continued, “I think a lot of people are struggling with the what do you do about it. If policy is gonna be made in 140 characters on Twitter and every reasonable measurement of accountability is being bypassed and people don’t care about it, we have a problem. And it’s not just our problem here in the United States. It’s all over the world. Do you realize in the entire presidential campaign here in the United States of America there wasn’t one question asked about climate change?”
He added, “I might add, I mean this whole issue of the norms of how we go through a nominating process. We have a whole bunch of hearing taking place without any — I’m stepping out of my bailiwick but it’s quite amazing to me when I think of the hoops that I had to jump through with respect to paper submitted and documentation and tax returns and a whole bunch of things. Suddenly that has gone pouf and it’s not as important. I think we have a lot of reckoning to do in our country in the next days and months.”
(h/t Politico)
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
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