George Stephanopoulos, a lifelong Democrat, is currently the host of ABC’s “This Week” news/commentary show. He is a former Communications Director and senior advisor during the Clinton administration.
So when he had lifelong Republican, former Senator, and current Trump-appointed Secretary Of State, Marco Rubio, on his show this weekend, you knew there would be a disagreement or two.
I thought you might want to see the verbatim exchange between Stephanopoulos and Rubio regarding defunding of the USAID program.
Here it is:
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: It does cost money to shut down AID, doesn’t it? That’s a fact.
SECRETARY RUBIO: No, we didn’t shut it down. We moved – well, a couple things. We shut down AID because it was a dysfunctional organization. We moved it under the State Department. Number two, we are going to do more foreign aid than any country in the world. Than any country in the world. We’re going to do more than anyone in the world again this year, but we’re going to do it the right way. We’re going to do it holistically. We’re going to do it as part of an integrated foreign policy. We are not going to fund an NGO industrial complex that built itself up that was taking a substantial percentage of the money and not going directly to the recipients; it was going to these organizations that had multibillion-dollar projects and budgets. We’re not going to continue to do it that way.
We are going to provide aid. We’re providing aid now. We just rolled out our new initiative on health. It’s going to be much more successful and much more effective. We’re going to enter into direct compacts with the countries. We’re going to empower our embassies and our ambassadors to direct which projects we fund and how much money countries are going to be receiving. We’re going to – so we are restructuring the way we do aid. It’s going to be far more effective and it’s going to be integrated into our holistic foreign policy.
STEPHANOPOULOS: That’s – that’s all in – that’s all in the future. But are you standing by that comment? Are you saying that no one has died?
SECRETARY RUBIO: No, it’s happening now. That’s not in the future; it’s happening now. No.
STEPHANOPOULOS: No one has died because of the aid cuts? Are all those aid organizations lying?
SECRETARY RUBIO: That’s ridiculous. Well, first of all – well, then they died because England didn’t give enough money or Canada didn’t give more or China didn’t. Let’s blame the other countries who don’t do any foreign aid. How about China? I mean, China’s the second largest economy in the world. They don’t give money to these projects. So did people die because China didn’t give more money?
STEPHANOPOULOS: So you’re no longer disputing that the aid cuts have cost people’s lives? You’re no longer disputing that?
SECRETARY RUBIO: It didn’t – I think anybody who tells you that somehow it’s the United States – if we cut a dollar, somehow we’re responsible for some horrific thing that’s going on in the world. It’s just not true. Beyond that, I would say that in some of these places that they cite, the reason why the aid didn’t get there —
STEPHANOPOULOS: Well, if that dollar’s not going to feeding someone or medicine, someone’s going to die, aren’t they?
SECRETARY RUBIO: No. Excuse me, George. One of the reasons why some of these places didn’t get the aid is not because we cut the aid. It’s because there’s a war going on and the aid never got to the people. So in Sudan, for example, it’s not just a humanitarian catastrophe; it’s a war zone. Okay? The aid is stolen. The aid is impeded. In fact, they use aid as a tool against the people, and so blocking aid is a tool and an arm of war. So in some of these places, the reason why the aid isn’t getting there is it can’t be distributed.
Look at Haiti. One of the reasons why aid can’t be distributed in Haiti is you can send all the aid in the world you want; it gets hijacked and stolen by criminal gangs that control the country. And so they’re the ones to blame for whatever happening there, not us, who’ve provided more aid than anybody else to Haiti, in Africa, in virtually every part of the world.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Well, let me just try one more time. Are you standing by the – are you standing by your contention that no one has died?
SECRETARY RUBIO: No one has died because the United States has cut aid, no. People have died because gangs steal the aid. People have died because the distributors of aid have not done well. People have died because other countries haven’t stepped up. But the United States has saved more lives, and continues to save more lives, than any other country in the world. And we’re going to continue to do it, but we’re going to do it the right way and in a responsible way. We’re not going to continue to pour billions of dollars out the door of American taxpayer funds for programs that don’t work and in some cases were flat-out corrupt.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Mr. Secretary, thanks for your time this morning.
Is it just me, or does George Stephanapoulos come across like a one-trick pony, ignoring every point Rubio makes while trying everything he can to equate dismantling the USAID program/substituting other means of distributing foreign aid with people dying?
Rubio’s argument – with damn good reason for making it – is that so much of the USAID money was being misused/diverted that those other means of providing aid had to be substituted, and that we remain, far and away, the single greatest source of foreign aid money in the world.
By contrast, Stephanopoulos seems to be that if other countries provide little or no foreign aid it’s not their fault that people die. It is our fault because we are the ones who do provide the money…and if we lessen the amount and change the way it is distributed – even if it is because we see the money being pissed away/winding up in the wrong hands – we are killing people.
Huh?
Anyway, there is the exchange and my take on it. Draw your own conclusions.
