New York Times columnist Bret Stephens compared Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to Cambodian genocidal dictator Pol Pot during an appearance on “Morning Joe” on Tuesday:
NYT’s Bret Stephens Compares Rex Tillerson to Pol Pot: Could be ‘Worst Secretary of State Ever’ https://t.co/MiFnyxeBZ5 pic.twitter.com/OAcnaxBb5J
— Mediaite (@Mediaite) August 22, 2017
Stephens didn’t mean in a “Killing Fields” sort of way, but in reference to the revolutionary concept of “year zero” which states “all culture and traditions within a society must be completely destroyed or discarded and a new revolutionary culture must replace it, starting from scratch.” He clarified immediately on the show:
“I don’t mean the Killing Fields,” Stephens helpfully clarified. I mean the year zero mentality. Blow it all up, see what happens, wait for a while and then try to arrange the pieces as you see ft. That might work in a start-up environment. It doesn’t work in a bureaucracy with 70,000 people.”
And later apologized for his “rhetorical exuberance”:
https://twitter.com/BretStephensNYT/status/899991207358713856
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