Warmbier's parents open up about Trump's comments on Kim's 'evil regime'

If you attack everything that President Trump says or does, you aren't thinking clearly and honestly judging him. If you support everything Trump says or does, you aren't thinking clearly and honestly judging him. There are times President Trump says and does the right thing, and other times when he doesn't.

While he was correct to walk away from the meeting in Hanoi with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, he was wrong to go there in the first place without preconditions for the meeting. Denuclearization should have been, at least in part, a precondition.

The parents of Otto Warmbier, an American college student, who died after his detention in North Korea, went public on Friday and countered President Trump’s suggestion that Kim Jong Un’s government was unaware of their son’s treatment – blaming the “evil regime” for Otto’s death and saying no amount of “lavish praise” can change that.

Trump was wrong to say that he believed that Kim had no knowledge of the beatings laid on Otto. People under Kim's iron fist rule don't go to the toilet without his knowledge and permission.

Trump drew bipartisan criticism for saying during Thursday’s summit that he takes Kim “at his word.” I don't care how much he is "keeping his friends close and his enemies closer" he does not need to lie to negotiate with this scumbag, and if he isn't lying, then Trump is totally naive.

“I believe something very bad happened to him,” Trump said. “I don’t think leadership knew about it,” he said incredulously.

Fred and Cindy Warmbier released a brief statement on Friday morning reiterating their long-held claim that the regime is responsible for their son’s death:

“We have been respectful during this summit process. Now we must speak out. Kim and his evil regime are responsible for the death of our son Otto. Kim and his evil regime are responsible for unimaginable cruelty and inhumanity. No excuses or lavish praise can change that.”

And Trump knows that nothing happens that can have a global impact without Kim Jong Un ordering or sanctioning it. Nothing.

The 22-year-old University of Virginia student died in June 2017 after being returned home in a vegetative state. His parents said he was tortured, which seems obvious to anyone with eyes and a brain.

The young man was visiting North Korea with a tour group when he was detained in 2016 for allegedly stealing a propaganda poster. 

North Korea has denied mistreating Warmbier, which of course they would.

Trump’s comments on the case drew criticism back home, recalling moments like when he did not challenge Vladimir Putin's denial of election meddling at their 2018 summit.

"We shouldn't be naive about this regime and about the way they mistreat their own people. And certainly the way they mistreated Otto Warmbier," Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH), said Thursday.

While there have been conflicting reports as to whether Warmbier was tortured, even President Trump asserted in September 2017 that Otto was “tortured beyond belief by North Korea.”

Perhaps Otto Warmbier's prison guards weren't concerned about what Kim Jong Un would do if he found out they had tortured an American college kid on a tour to his country. But maybe he gave them the green light to do just that.

I am sorry that President Trump provided Kim Jong Un with the global stature the Hanoi meeting gave him. But I am more sorry that Trump gave him an "out" for what he did to an American.

Sometimes Trump does good things and even great things. Sometimes he does bad things and even stupid things. If you can't be critical of a politician you like when he or she does a stupid or bad thing, you're not being intellectually honest.

I hope you'll follow Brain Flushings and have a few laughs while you get a conservative viewpoint. Politics is the new NFL without the mindless kneeling and this blog will both inform you and hopefully entertain you bigly.

Tweet