Section: New Republic (USA)
The President and His Whistleblower
Here are two things that happened this week. On Tuesday, President Donald Trump delivered an aggressively nationalistic speech at the United Nations General Assembly. He framed the world in binary terms. On one side of the divide, there are those who place their own well-being ahead of foreign and personal interests. On the other side, there are...
Impeachment Shouldn’t Be the Goal of Impeachment
With Thursday’s release of an almost comically damning complaint from an anonymous whistleblower alleging serious abuses of office by President Donald Trump, we seem to be barreling toward his impeachment. I would like to suggest that House Democrats slow down.I start with the assumption that there will be no serious consequences for Trump...
The Mess Trump Has Made in Ukraine
In the wake of his now-infamous July phone call with Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy, it’s not surprising that President Donald Trump has received the lion’s share of American analysis, especially after his actions have now triggered an impeachment process. But there hasn’t been very much analysis of Zelenskiy, nor...
Rudy Giuliani’s Year of Living Dangerously
Nearly thirty years ago, then-President George H.W. Bush stood in Kyiv, in front of an auditorium of Soviet officials struggling to revive a flailing Soviet Union. Here was a golden opportunity for an American president to carry a torch for the independence movements bubbling up from Ukraine to Georgia to Kyrgyzstan. Bush, instead, backed the...
Donald Trump, Sitting Duck
The Republicans projected confidence going into Thursday. Reports that President Trump had pressured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate Joe Biden’s son had finally nudged Democrats on Wednesday to announce an “official impeachment inquiry,” but some of Trump’s top defenders insisted that he would be exonerated by a...
Impeach Him For Real
Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s Tuesday announcement regarding the House Democrats’ impeachment plans is less significant than the build-up had suggested. After months of pressure from Democratic colleagues, she declared that the House would begin a formal impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump. While her statement may be a...
Finally
Nancy Pelosi has run out of excuses for inaction. In a press conference late Tuesday afternoon, the House majority leader announced the launch of an “official impeachment inquiry” in President Donald Trump. By asking Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate Joe Biden’s son’s dealings in the country, Trump called “upon a...
Democrats Can Do Better Than This
Rich people are just like us, in that they enjoy simple pleasures: Good food, vacations, and joining corporate boards. They simply can’t get enough of being on corporate boards—or sometimes charity boards, or museum boards. If you are truly an elite, you simply must be on a board or two, to demonstrate how sought-after your expertise is....
Donald Trump’s Best Ally Against Impeachment
There’s a certain rhythm to the last two presidential scandals that led to impeachment proceedings. Richard Nixon denied that he had tried to cover up the Watergate break-in during the two-year scandal that followed. The Supreme Court forced him to hand over the White House tapes to prosecutors, including one in which he conspired to...
Russian Trolls Love Targeting U.S. Veterans
The post popped up in select Instagram feeds shortly before the election in 2016. Its photo depicted an anonymous black-clad woman on an airport tarmac, crying over a metal casket covered in an American flag. “Killary Clinton will never understand what it feels like to lose the person you love for the sake of your country,” the caption began....
