President Barack Obama and Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany participate in a bilateral meeting on the Aspen Cabin patio during the G8 Summit at Camp David, Md., May 19, 2012. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
On Wednesday, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Dan Baer took to the pages of Foreign Policy to pounce on a disputed rumor that the Trump administration attempted to “lure CureVac” a German company working on a coronavirus vaccine, “to the US with generous offers of money,” according to the FT.
In his piece, Baer acknowledges that the rumor is unreliable and that the Trump administration denied it ever happened. Baer takes even the idea that it could have happened as an opportunity to slam Trump, saying “the United States sneaking around the back of a close ally to steal medicine—would have seemed unthinkable, the past behavior of the Trump administration makes it seem entirely plausible.”
Just the “idea” that the U.S. could sneak around behind Germany’s back is unthinkable to Baer. How short his memory must be. In 2015, the Obama administration was forced to apologize to Germany, France, and Japan for spying on their leaders. Baer was the Obama administration’s ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe at the time. Some cooperation!
