Donald Trump’s threat that Iran’s “whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again” if Tehran did not capitulate to his demands by Tuesday night was outrageous and indefensible.
In a late-night phone call with Rep. Mike Lawler, the Pearl River Republican who represents New York’s 17th Congressional District, I challenged him to make that defense. To his credit, he didn’t try.
“That’s not language, obviously, that I would use,” Lawler told me.
Lawler, who is a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee also said, “Certainly from the standpoint of eliminating a civilian population, that is not something that I am supportive of at all — period.”
He said the president isn’t supportive of that either.
“And I think that’s the whole point,” Lawler said of Trump. “If you look at everything he’s said [this week] he was specifically talking about eliminating the energy and civilian infrastructure.”
Lawler rejects Trump’s rhetoric — but backs the agenda
Except Trump wasn’t specific. He was reckless and sounded unhinged.
I understand that going to war with a terrorist regime hellbent on the destruction of America and our allies is not church work. And I’ve heard the theory that Trump’s message was directed at what’s left of the Iranian regime — not the 90 million Iranians he threatened to destroy but his choice of firing off a menacing social media post was just plain stupid.
Lawler made the point that Iran is not a good-faith negotiator and conventional diplomatic language has not moved the nation for the last 47 years.
Trump has never been one to observe decorum and I hope his vulgarity and bullying has not redefined the standards of political discourse. The next president should return dignity to the office.
Lawler pointed out though that even Ronald Reagan’s famous 1987 directive at the Brandenburg gate to his Soviet counterpart — “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” — was met with criticism, it was effective. It’s been reported that Reagan’s chief of staff, Howard Baker, said that rhetoric sounded “extreme” and “unpresidential.” Still, it became the touchstone line of the end of the cold war.
Trump announced a ceasefire agreement that is tenuous and depends on the remnants of the Iranian regime opening the Strait of Hormuz and relinquishing their stockpile of enriched uranium.
If the ceasefire holds and gives an opportunity for legitimate negotiations, will the result justify Trump’s means of existential threats have been worth it? I think anyone who supports Trump’s agenda of finally eliminating Iran’s efforts to achieve nuclear weapon capabilities would have to say it was.
Lawler is absolutely committed to that agenda. Rejecting Trump’s rhetoric while acknowledging the results it produces doesn’t make the congressman a MAGA sycophant. It makes him a realist.
Lawler’s response that he would not use the words Trump used will not satisfy his opponents but then again, nothing will.
I asked Lawler if he thought Trump’s lunatic statements were a hinderance to his party as we head into the midterm elections, “Look, he is not going to change. He’s going to be 80 years old. You’re not going to get him to bend to the whims or will, politically of anyone,” Lawler said.
The congressman, who has represented the district that includes parts of Westchester and Dutchess counties and all of Rockland and Putnam counties, told me that Democrats’ hatred for Trump has led them to rooting for America to fail in the war effort.
Democratic candidates’ opportunity to define themselves on foreign affairs
On the evening of Thursday, April 9, four of the six Democratic Party candidates vying to take Lawler on in the November midterm, Rockland County Legislator Beth Davidson; Cait Conley, an Army veteran and former national security official; Tarrytown Trustee Effie Phillips-Staley; and Peter Chatzky, Briarcliff Manor’s deputy mayor will participate in a debate at Manhattanville University. The moderators will be Jeff Coltin, editor-in-chief of City and State magazine and Barrett Seaman, editor of The Hudson Independent. I was invited to participate as a moderator but was subsequently uninvited because an unnamed member of the Democrats’ executive board had an unspecified issue with me.
I’m certain the moderators will do an excellent job and that will require them to drill down on the candidates’ positions on the Iran war issue.
I’m sure the candidates will rage against Trump’s maniacal statement, but they won’t be running against Trump in the general election. Outside of the friendly confines of a progressive audience, they are going to have to convince moderate voters that they understand the complex geopolitical issues that are roiling the middle east.
Denouncing Trump’s warmongering glee is easy for Lawler’s Democratic rivals. Defining their own positions on how to deal with a terrorist regime that aggressively sought nuclear weapons and has slaughtered thousands including its own people is going to be much tougher.
Matt Richter, a veteran Hudson Valley journalist, is local news and regional opinion manager for lohud.com and The Journal News. He can be reached at mrichter@usatodayco.com.
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Lawler says Trump’s lunatic rhetoric can’t destroy discourse | Opinion
Reporting by Matt Richter, Rockland/Westchester Journal News / Rockland/Westchester Journal News
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