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James Baker would be ‘deeply comfortable’ with Howard Schultz’s foreign policy

PODCAST PLAYBACK — On the Words Matter podcast, Elise Jordan, a former policy advisor to Rand Paul in 2016, asked strategist Steve Schmidt who is advising Howard Schultz about the potential 2020 candidate’s foreign policy views.

Schmidt: “Earlier this year he gave a speech at the Atlantic Council and by any objective measurement he would fall within the tradition that endured from President Trump through President Obama.”

Jordan: Would you say he’s a realist in the tradition of, say, James Baker or does he tend to be for democracy promotion? He said he would support leaving troops in Syria the other day. 

Schmidt: “He did say that and thought that Trump’s decision announcing the decision precipitously was a mistake. I think if you go back to his speech at the Atlantic Council, what he talked about was the importance of alliances, the connection within that alliance of free peoples, the idea that America is the indispensable nation in the world that if the U.S. steps back that vacuum will be filled with actors that are not benevolent, not benign, so I think he stayed in that speech well within the boundaries of what we would recognize as a foreign policy that James Baker would be deeply comfortable with.” [WordsMatter]

— Flashback to April 24, 2015 — Jeb Bush distances himself from James Baker: “After Baker’s J Street speech, Bush came under pressure from prominent conservatives — including Republican mega-donor Sheldon Adelson — who wanted Bush to strongly speak out against Baker’s comments.” [CNN]

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