Outgoing Secretary of State John Kerry faulted President-elect Trump on Monday for criticizing German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and said the incoming president made an “inappropriate” intervention into foreign politics.
“I thought frankly it was inappropriate for a president-elect of the United States to be stepping into the politics of other countries in a quite direct manner,” Kerry told CNN on Monday.
Trump made his comment when asked if he agreed with President Obama’s statement that he “might support” Merkel if he had the right to vote in a German election.
“I don’t know who she’s running against, number one, I’m just saying, I don’t know her, I’ve never met her,” Trump replied. “As I said, I’ve had great respect for her. I felt she was a great, great leader. I think she made one very catastrophic mistake and that was taking all of these illegals, you know taking all of the people from wherever they come from. Now, with that being said, I respect her, I like her, but I don’t know her. So I can’t talk about who I’m gonna be backing — if anyone.”
Kerry suggested such comments would make it harder for Trump to work with foreign leaders. “I think we have to be very careful about suggesting that one of the strongest leaders in Europe and most important players with respect to where we are heading made one mistake or another,” the 2004 Democratic nominee for president said. “I don’t think it’s appropriate for us to be commenting on that.”
He also defended Merkel’s decision to welcome nearly one million Middle Eastern refugees into the country in 2015.
“I think that she was extremely courageous and I don’t think it amounts to [Trump’s] characterization at all,” he said. “It has had some problems, but everybody has had some problems with this challenge of how do you respond appropriately as a big nation, as a great nation, as the West, where our values and our principles are important with respect to caring for people who are in distress, who are put into refugee status.”
“We have a great history of that and we’ve seen what happens when we don’t do that,” he added. “And so, I think she’s been extraordinarily courageous. I think she’s been extraordinarily important to Europe as an entity and we, the Obama administration, has valued her leadership enormously.”
