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Washington — Secretary of State John Kerry warned that the Republican presidential campaign has descended into “an embarrassment” that raises awkward questions abroad about the reliability of the United States.
Kerry said that everywhere he goes, every leader he meets asks about what is happening in America.
“They can’t believe it. I think it’s fair to say that they’re shocked. They don’t know where it’s taking the United States of America,” Kerry said in an interview on the Sunday CBS news show Face The Nation.
“It upsets people’s sense of equilibrium about our steadiness, about our reliability, and to some degree I must say to you, some of the questions, the way they’re posed to me, it’s clear to me that what’s happening is an embarrassment to our country.”
Kerry was asked on the impact abroad of the Republican campaign with its calls for bans on Muslim immigrants, surveillance of Muslim neighbourhoods and the return of waterboarding, an interrogation practice regarded as torture.
Front-runner Donald Trump and his chief rival, Ted Cruz, have stepped up the anti-Muslim rhetoric since the suicide bombings in Brussels on Tuesday that left 28 dead.
In an interview with The New York Times, Trump described his approach to foreign policy as “American first,” borrowing the isolation slogan of Americans who wanted to keep the United States out of World War II.
The US Republican presidential front-runner said Europe had lots of “very, very severe” problems and added that he did not even think America was a safe place for Americans.
Trump made the comments five days after the two explosions at Brussels Airport and a blast on the Metro, in which at least 31 people died.
Speaking to ABC, he said: “I don’t think Bruss —England or I don’t think that Europe is a safe place. No, I don’t. I think there are a lot of problems in Europe that are very, very severe. When you look at Brussels, when you look at the way they’ve handled things from law enforcement standpoints, when you look at Paris, when you look at so many other places, no, it’s not [safe].”
Kerry seemed to echo Trump’s comment, saying that US citizens should “avoid a crowded place” if they were travelling in Europe, because “you’ve no control over who may be there”.
In December Trump sparked outrage after claiming some areas of London were “so radicalised that the police are afraid for their own lives.”
Trump’s latest comments came as Belgian officials completed their initial investigation at Brussels International Airport and found the main building to be stable.
A statement published on the airport’s website confirmed that technicians and independent experts had judged the main and connector buildings to be “intact”.
The statement also disclosed that the locations where hand luggage and custom checks are carried out can also be used again.
Airport officials are now discussing plans to install temporary check-in desks, but pointed out that the process of identifying a suitable location was still being carried out in consultation with airlines and luggage handlers. — AP
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