Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union,” 2020 Democratic presidential hopeful former HUD Secretary Julián Castro accused President Donald Trump of “turning us into a Banana Republic little by little.”
Partial transcript as follows:
TAPPER: The president has spent a lot of time in the last week trying to insist his tweet a week ago today in which he told people in Alabama and other states —but the incorrect information was Alabama, that the storm Hurricane Dorian would hit much harder than had been predicted. That was not true according to the experts at the time. The National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration put out a statement I think on Friday which disputed its own scientists and weather experts to back up the president’s claim would likely be hit much harder than anticipated. What did you think of that?
CASTRO: Look, those organizations are supposed to be independent neutral scientific organizations that don’t play politics. That’s what we want them to be. Under the Trump administration, whether it’s them or it’s focused who will remember the Park Service, after the National Park Service on the very first day of this administration they put out that photo that his crowd size at the inauguration was not what he claimed and he tried to browbeat them. This is a president that steps all over the traditional role of a chief executive when it comes to these organizations. And what happens is you compromise the stuff that is supposed to exist between their work and the American public. So it’s a real embarrassment. I wish I could say I hope this president is going to not do that again but again it’s the same erratic behavior, destructive behavior, that is de-professionalizing the government of the United States of America and turning us into a Banana Republic little by little. I think Americans have had enough of it and they’re going to make a change in 2020.
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