http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euz-wXNEvwo
Fmr. Trump Appointee: Closing USAID Is "More Than Dangerous, It Is Deadly"
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Transcript: https://transcripts.cnn.com/show/ampr/date/2025-02-07/segment/01
MATTHEW BARTLETT, FORMER TRUMP APPOINTEE TO THE STATE DEPARTMENT.
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"You would be equally, if not even more naive, to not recognize the everyday miracle that USAID and its staff performed around the world in terms of clean water, sanitation, and certainly one of the most central tenets of American foreign policy over the past 20 years, HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention. So, this is a very, very unsettling notion. We've seen efforts of reform. Scrutiny is welcomed, continuity is critical, but the notion of closing and extinguishing USAID is more than dangerous, it is deadly."
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" I was a Trump appointee at the State Department at PEPFAR in the first administration. We made different choices than the Biden-Harris administration made. Yes, they were run by very progressive individuals, ideologies for the past four years. That is how -- in part, how you know, administrations change. And this is why, when you now come in *****a reasonable governing adult would be in charge, would make reforms, would make government and USAID work, not end it.***** So, again, this is a more than a political prism. This is more than reform. This is highly problematic in terms of the outcomes that are desirable for the United States of America. If you are saying that USAID was problematic in the Biden-Harris years, it is equally, if not even more problematic, to then just end it.
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"I reauthorized PEPFAR -- or helped reauthorize PEPFAR at the State Department through a Republican House, through a Republican Senate, and ***signed into law by President Trump in 2018.*** The world is a better place because of that. ... PEPFAR is implemented by CDC and USAID on the ground. When they are frozen, when monies are frozen, drugs cannot get out, prevention cannot take place. And again, this throws the entire program into peril.
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"AMANPOUR: I want to pick up on a very important aspect of it. And you said, you know, the perception that too much money is being spent by America to serve the underprivileged abroad. But the truth is, as you know from being in the State Department, it's essentially foreign aid. ****A Kaiser Foundation poll found that Americans believe about a third of government spending goes to foreign aid, where the actual number is less than 1 percent.**** *****So, misinformation is right there.***** It's a very small amount, according to a multi trillion-dollar U.S. budget. And as you say, it has served the American, you know, state and the American people very well.
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And let's not forget:
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-calls-usaid-tremendous-fraud-wife-daughter-promoted/story?id=118547473
Trump calls USAID a 'tremendous fraud.' His wife and daughter promoted its work.
Melania and Ivanka Trump toured Africa to promote USAID programs. - Feb 6, 2025
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" "We care," Melania Trump declared in 2018 during a visit to Egypt as first lady to promote her partnership with the U.S. Agency for International Development. "We care, and we want to show the world that we care, and I've partnered and am working with USAID," she continued. "And that's what I want to share -- that we care." On her four-country jaunt through Africa in 2018 -- her first major solo international trip as first lady -- Melania Trump offered praise for what she described as "successful" USAID programs as she observed them up close.
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"... "When people have opportunities and societies are freer and more educated, we are stronger as the United States," the first lady told ABC News. ...
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"... And the first lady isn't the only Trump who has stood behind USAID's work. In 2019 then-President Trump signed a memorandum launching a new "Women's Global Development and Prosperity" Initiative aimed at empowering women in the developing world. The $50 million fund, known as W-GDP, was developed to be distributed by USAID with an ambitious goal of empowering 50 million women in developing countries by 2025.
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" "We know there's a correlation between gender inequality and conflict, there's tremendous amounts of research. There's a reason today, the president signed WGDP as a national security presidential memorandum," she said in an interview with ABC News. "It is in our domestic security interests to empower women. ..."
Posted By: coeur-de-lion
some interesting facts are coming out . . . .