US President Donald Trump’s national security adviser, General H. R. McMaster, has awkwardly dodged a question about Washington’s dual policy regarding the recent political developments in Venezuela and Turkey.
On Monday, the US Treasury Department imposed new financial sanctions on Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, a day after the oil-rich nation cast their ballots on electing a new assembly tasked with rewriting the constitution.
During a White House press briefing about the new bans, a journalist asked McMaster whether there was a difference between what happened in Venezuela and a similar attempt by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to expand his constitutional powers a short while back.
“President Trump congratulated President Erdogan on that and he even later came to the US and his people beat protesters in front of his embassy,” the journalist said, referring to a brutal crackdown of anti-Erdogan protesters by the…