Former GOP strategist Steve Schmidt slammed President Donald Trump for sucking up to North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un after a federal judge held North Korea responsible for the death of 22-year-old American citizen Otto Warmbier.
Warmbier had been arrested and sentenced to 15 years hard labor in North Korea in 2016, only to be released in 2017 in a comatose state after suffering a brain injury of unknown cause before dying upon returning to his family.
In a ruling on Christmas Eve, District Judge Beryl A. Howell awarded the family a $500 million judgment against the brutal regime.
“An American family, the Warmbiers, experienced North Korea’s brutality first-hand when North Korea seized their son to use as a pawn in that totalitarian state’s global shenanigans and face-off with the United States,” Howell wrote, going on the cite “North Korea’s barbaric mistreatment of Otto, including ‘torture,’ ‘hostage taking,’ and ‘extrajudicial killing'” as further reason for the decision.
Instead of responding appropriately to the ruling, Trump ignored it entirely and gushed over Kim Jong Un and expressed his excitement about their next summit together.
Christmas Eve briefing with my team working on North Korea – Progress being made. Looking forward to my next summit with Chairman Kim! pic.twitter.com/zPTtDbrP0o
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 24, 2018
Of course, the last time Trump held a summit with Kim he got totally duped into thinking North Korea would dismantle their nuclear weapons and surrender them. It turns out that North Korea has only bolstered their nuclear arsenal and now expects the United States to withdraw our own forces from South Korea and Japan in exchange for denuclearization, which would leave our allies vulnerable to attack.
Anyway, The Washington Post’s Glenn Kessler pointed out the coincidence of Trump’s insensitive tweet.
Is it a coincidence this tweet came out just hours after a federal judge ordered North Korea to pay the parents of Otto Warmbier more than $500 million — an act of murder that likely could only have been done on the orders of “Chairman Kim”? https://t.co/V0urGpKKYW
— Glenn Kessler (@GlennKesslerWP) December 24, 2018
Steve Schmidt noticed, too, and he also noticed Abraham Lincoln’s portrait staring down at Trump in the room, and used it to shame him.
Look at the portrait of Abraham Lincoln gazing down on the miscreant President whose incompetence, malice and treachery have brought peril to the nation that he saved. Danger is looming on this Christmas Eve because of the fool and criminal in the White House. He shames America. https://t.co/ZzZdeoiuzP
— Steve Schmidt (@SteveSchmidtSES) December 24, 2018
Indeed, Schmidt is right. Trump is letting North Korea get away with murdering an American citizen the same way he has let Saudi Arabia get away with murdering journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a U.S. resident.
This is the opposite of what the Warmbier family expects of the United States, which they made clear in their statement after the judge made his ruling.
“We are thankful that the United States has a fair and open judicial system so that the world can see that the Kim regime is legally and morally responsible for Otto’s death,” they said. “We put ourselves and our family through the ordeal of a lawsuit and public trial because we promised Otto that we will never rest until we have justice for him,” they said in the statement. As a family, mother, father, sister and brother, we would like to thank all those who knew and loved Otto, and for all those who supported us and our mission to hold Kim liable for his actions.”
Sadly, it appears Trump does not feel the same way and that’s a pathetic reaction from a weak and immoral president. He has disgraced this nation and disrespected the Warmbier family, and Republicans should impeach him for failing to stand up for America and our citizens against authoritarian nations that hate us.
Featured Image: Screenshot
