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Trump’s words just rhetoric

To the editor:

Following a recent diplomatic summit held in Vietnam between President Donald J. Trump and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, when queried about the potentate’s undeniable involvement and culpability in the ultimate demise of 22-year-old American Otto Warmbier, following his 17 months of imprisonment in North Korea as a result of his allegedly “stealing a propaganda poster” during his visit to North Korea as a University of Virginia student as part of a tour group, Trump categorically refused to place any degree of responsibility on Chairman Kim, stating that he would take Kim at his word when he incredibly informed the president that he was “unaware of any mistreatment of the young American during his imprisonment in his country.”

Warmbier, who reportedly departed on his journey to North Korea in excellent health, returned to the United States, following his release from his incarceration in a vegetative state, blind, deaf and staring blankly into space, and perished shortly after his return in June 2017.

As a result of what had been done to Warmbier while in North Korea, a U.S. federal judge has awarded his grieving parents $500 million in their wrongful death suit against the government of North Korea for “barbaric treatment” on their part, which led to multiple physical disabilities and, ultimately, his death.

In spite of the president’s shockingly dismissive response to this terrifying incident, U.S. Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, stated, “This treatment at the hands of his captors was unforgivable, and it tells a lot about the nature of this (North Korean) regime,” and Republican U.S. Rep. Ben Wenstrup, who, like Portman and the Warmbiers hails from the Cincinnati area, commented, “Otto Warmbier’s imprisonment and death were heinous crimes at the hands of the brutal Kim Jong Un regime.”

Portman and Wenstrup happen to be members of the Republican Party, as, is now, Trump. It is most refreshing and encouraging that, at least in this case, some are willing to place their country above their party.

The president desperately needs to reassess this situation and strongly advocate on behalf of the American citizenry, which is his innate responsibility as our great nation’s chief executive.

Sadly, so much for Trump’s often-stated creed of “America first,” as such words now appear to be little more than hollow rhetoric.

Richard Hord

Martins Ferry

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