Titled "Donald Trump Is Gonna Get Us Killed," the piece builds upon what Moore told Seth Meyers in an interview earlier this month.
"A week has gone by since Donald Trump admitted he's only been to 'two or three' of his daily presidential national security briefings. There have been 36 of them since the day he secured enough electoral college votes to be appointed president next Monday when the Electoral College meets," Moore began. "Most would agree the No. 1 job of the leader of any country is to keep its people safe. There is no more important meeting every day for the President than the one where he learns what the day's potential threats are to the country. That Trump would find it too cumbersome or too annoying to have to sit through 20 minutes of listening to his top intelligence people tell him who's trying to kill us today, simply boggles the mind."
Citing what Moore called Trump's "childish tweets" about Saturday Night Live, the Oscar-winning filmmaker expressed doubt Trump "doesn't have time" to hear about threats to the nation.
"So, my fellow Americans, when the next terrorist attack happens -- and it will happen, we all know that -- and after the tragedy is over, amidst the death and destruction that might have been prevented, you will see Donald Trump acting quickly to blame everyone but himself.
He will suspend constitutional rights. He will round up anyone he deems a threat. He will declare war, and his Republican Congress will back him," Moore wrote. "And no one will remember that he wasn't paying attention to the growing threat. Wasn't attending the daily national security briefings. Was playing golf instead or meeting with celebrities or staying up til 3 a.m. tweeting about how unfair CNN is. He said he didn't need to be briefed. 'You know, I think I'm smart. I don't need to hear the same thing over and over each day for eight years.' That's what he told Fox News on Dec. 11 when asked why he wasn't attending the security briefings. Don't forget that date and his hubris as we bury the dead next year."
As Moore did during his appearance with Meyers, he then connected Trump with President George W. Bush, who received a national security briefing during his vacation on Aug. 6, 2001, about Osama Bin Laden's plans to attack the United States. (Moore writes Bush "glanced" at the memo and then "went fishing for the rest of the day.") Moore's essay included a picture of Bush receiving the documents at his Crawford, Texas ranch. (The Sept. 11 terrorist attacks happened a month after Bush received the briefing.)
"It's one thing to have a president who was asleep at the wheel. But, my friends, it's a whole other thing to now have a president-elect who REFUSES TO EVEN GET BEHIND THE WHEEL!" Moore wrote. "This utter neglect of duty, a daily snub at the people who work to protect us, the first Commander-in-Chief to literally be AWOL and announcing proudly he isn't going to change -- this, I assure you, is going to get a lot of innocent people killed."
Moore then directly addressed Trump, writing, "When this next terrorist attack takes place, it is YOU who will be charged by the American people with a gross dereliction of duty. It was YOUR job to pay attention, to protect the country. But you were too busy tweeting and defending Putin and appointing cabinet members to dismantle the government. You didn't have time for the daily national security briefing. Don't think we're going to let you use a modern-day burning of the Reichstag as your excuse to eliminate our civil liberties and our democracy."
He added, "We will remember that while the plot to kill Americans was being hatched, your time was consumed by whom you saw as the real threat to America: Alec Baldwin in a wig."
Last week, Moore made a similar plea to Trump from the set of Meyers' NBC late-night show.
"Seriously, with all due respect, Mr. President-elect. On our behalf, you have to pay attention," he said, speaking into the camera. "You have to attend these briefings. This is our country. This is our security. This is our safety. You're horsing around with all this nonsense, and you're not doing your No. 1 job. And the No. 1 job of the president is to make sure the country is safe. I beg you, seriously - there's no right or left, Republican or Democrat going on here. I'm asking you to do your job for the sake of the people who may end up dead because you didn't do your job. We had this happen once before. We had this unengaged president who wasn't reading his briefs; you don't even attend the briefs. So I'm begging you to do that. I'm begging you to get up in the morning, send out your tweets to whoever. Criticize him but not me. And then, god, please, attend the briefing. Attend the briefing."
Entertainment Weekly
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