Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice defended President Donald Trump on Tuesday and told the women of “The View” not to question the legitimacy of the 2016 U.S. election.
Whoopi Goldberg, Joy Behar, and their fellow ABC co-hosts invited former President George W. Bush’s top diplomat on to discuss her new book Democracy: Stories from the Long Road to Freedom.” She refused to openly criticize Mr. Trump on issues ranging from the resignation of national security adviser Michael Flynn to the performance of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.
“I trust the people who voted in Wisconsin and Texas and Alabama and California to have voted on the basis of who they thought was best going to represent their interests,” Ms. Rice said when asked if Mr. Trump’s victory over Hillary Clinton was tainted because of Russian hackers. “So I’m not going to question the legitimacy of their vote because Vladimir Putin tried to interfere in the election.”
She then expanded on the psychology of Mr. Putin, who she said is of an “eye-for-an-eye” mindset.
“I said [during a meeting with Putin], ’You know, Mr. President, if you do anything in Georgia, President Bush wants you to know that would greatly affect our relationship,’ and he stood up. And now he’s peering over me,” Ms. Rice recounted. “And so, just on instinct, I stood up too. Now, I’m 5-foot-10 in heels — he’s not.”
The audience clapped at Ms. Rice’s assertiveness.
“What you can’t do is be intimidated by Putin or let him play these psychological games,” she added.
The former secretary of state also said she felt sorry about the growing pains Mr. Trump will have as he transitions from the business world to life in Washington, D.C.
“He had never been in government before,” Ms. Rice said. “And when you haven’t been in government before, sometimes it looks kind of easy in there, until you get in there. And when he said, you know, ’This job’s a lot harder than I thought,’ I actually kind of felt bad for him, because it is a really hard job, and it’s a lonely job, and you want people around you who you trust.”
The interview ended with Joy Behar saying that Mr. Trump made her “love George Bush.”
“Joy, I’ve been here with you a couple times,” Ms. Rice said. “I never thought I’d hear you say that.”
• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
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