Congratulations to MSNBC's Morning Joe. They actually interviewed outgoing NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg for over five minutes on Friday morning without giving in to their natural urge to try to get him to criticize Donald Trump.

However, at about the six minute mark they could resist no longer and the Morning Joe tag team of Eugene Robinson and Jonathan Lemire tried to get Stoltenberg to express even minor disapproval of Orange Man Bad. Unfortunately, their attempt not only failed but Stoltenberg praised Trump for getting NATO allies to pay their fair share of the costs.

First up at bat was Eugene Robinson.

 

EUGENE ROBINSON: Mr. Stoltenberg, what is the level of trepidation about the U.S. election, and how is that being seen in the NATO countries?

JENS: STOLTENBERG: Well, of course, NATO allies watch the elections in the U.S., as everyone else, but I expect that regardless of who is elected as president in November, the United States will remain a strong and committed ally, partly because it is the U.S. security interest to have a strong NATO. the United States has not gone to war alone since the Korean War, you’ve always gone to war together with NATO allies. That makes it stronger. You have something China and Russia doesn’t have, and that’s more than 30 friends and allies, good for the United States. Second, there’s strong bipartisan support in the United States for NATO in the Congress, but also among the voters, according to all the opinion polls.

And thirdly, the criticism from the United States and also from former President Trump has not mainly been against NATO. It has been against NATO allies not spending enough on NATO, and that was right, but that has changed because a few years ago, very few allies spent 2%, now many allies are spending much more than 2%, and the U.S. is no longer the biggest spender based on GDP or a share of the GDP. Poland and the Baltic countries are spending more share of the GDP than the United States. So this has really improved the burden sharing within the alliance.

Drat! Stoltenberg praised Trump for getting NATO allies to act with fiscal responsibility in sharing the financial burden of that organization. Well, perhaps Jonathan Lemire can squeeze a Trump critique out of Stoltenberg with a more direct and heavy-handed approach.

JONATHAN LEMIRE: So, you are right, Mr. Secretary General, that former President Trump was a big advocate on allies to spend more, but he also, as you well know, has been rather deferential to Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, throughout his political career. What is your level of concern that if Trump were to win again, that he would abandon Ukraine and he would give Putin at least some measure of a victory there in Ukraine?

JENS STOLTENBERG: “Well, again, I expect that the United States, regardless of who is the president, see what is in the security interest of the United States. And if President Putin wins in Ukraine, it’s a tragedy for the Ukrainians, but it’s dangerous for us. It will send a message to President Putin that when he violates international law and he uses military force, he gets what he wants. That’s also closely watched in Beijing, so it will send a message to all the authoritarian powers, including China, that using force, then they get what they want. What happens in Ukraine today could happen in Asia tomorrow. It was clearly stated, for instance, by the Japanese prime minister said recently.

And it’s not for me to speak on behalf of any of the candidates, but I just know that when I worked with former President Trump, we had the issue of Javelins, and he actually stepped up the military support too Ukraine and provided Javelins. So, well, it is in the U.S. security interest to ensure that European allies and the United States enable Ukrainians to stop the Russian invaders, and I expect that to be the position of our elections.

Morning Joe signed off with that and you could almost hear a sad trombone signaling mission NOT accomplished.