President Donald Trump was "playing loose with his facts" when he referred in a weekend speech to incidents happening in Sweden, former U.N. ambassador Bill Richardson said Monday.
"Most disturbingly, he's getting his information from late night television instead of his national security team intelligence briefing," Richardson told CNN's "New Day" program.
"This was wrong. There's been no terrorist incidents in Sweden since 2013, when Sweden opened up its borders."
During a rally in Florida on Saturday, Trump said "look what's happening last night in Sweden" while speaking about past terror attacks in Europe. His comments drew questions and criticism from Sweden as no terrorism incidents had occurred Friday night.
Sunday, White House principal deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement that he was "talking about rising crime and recent incidents in general and not referring to a specific incident," and Trump tweeted his information had come from a Fox News story.
Trump's comments, said Richardson, add Sweden to the list of countries Trump has insulted, joining "Australia, Mexico, Canada, and the 11 countries of the Trans-Pacific Partnership [after] we abolished the treaty with them."
Words matter, said Richardson, because Trump is now president and not a candidate, and "the danger is that the president seems to be speaking to his narrow base, the base that elected him."
Vice President Mike Pence, meanwhile, has been "partially reassuring" when it comes to his words about NATO, but he "said nothing about still working with the European Union," said Richardson.
"Europe is still wondering where we are," said Richardson. "Are we not going to be active with NATO if NATO doesn't pay the two percent, which they should."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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