Donald Rumsfeld Inadvertently Disses Himself Yet Again

Donald Rumsfeld has weighed in on the Obama administration’s at-best-muddled response to the Benghazi embassy attack:

I thought it was amazing that someone in [UN ambassador Susan Rice’s] position would go on with that degree of certainty, that fast and that authoritatively and be that wrong…[I]t demonstrated such serious misjudgments…

You remember Donald Rumsfeld. He was 13th and 21st United States Secretary of Defense, first under Gerald Ford and then George W. Bush. His hobbies include playing squash and roping cattle. He was also instrumental in the judgment and degrees of certainty that led to this:

this /thisOh, right. That. Staff Sgt. Sean A. Foley/US ArmyAnd he gave the world this slice of poetry when asked in 2002 about WMD-related intelligence gaps:

[T]here are known knowns; there are things we know that we know.
There are known unknowns; that is to say there are things that, we now know we don’t know.
But there are also unknown unknowns; there are things we do not know we don’t know.

Also, he’s wanted for war crimes.

So in other words, yes, Donald Rumsfeld is absolutely the guy you would want to comment on being “wrong” with regards to foreign intel.

BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things they don’t like—which is most things that are true.

No one gets to tell Mother Jones what to publish or not publish, because no one owns our fiercely independent newsroom. But that also means we need to directly raise the resources it takes to keep our journalism alive. There’s only one way for that to happen, and it’s readers like you stepping up. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

payment methods

BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things they don’t like—which is most things that are true.

No one gets to tell Mother Jones what to publish or not publish, because no one owns our fiercely independent newsroom. But that also means we need to directly raise the resources it takes to keep our journalism alive. There’s only one way for that to happen, and it’s readers like you stepping up. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate