Section: The Atlantic (USA)
The Next Trump Crisis Is Already Here
Republicans voted down a measure to call witnesses in President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial and are moving to acquittal in a hell-for-leather dash to put the crisis behind them. It’s a doomed errand. With Trump, the next crisis is always just ahead.Actually, the first “next crisis” has already arrived. The New York Times reported...
The Russian Conspiracy Theory That Won’t Die
Precisely 61 years ago, a band of skiers trekking through the Ural Mountains stashed food, extra skis, and a well-worn mandolin in a valley to pick up on the way back from their expedition. In a moment of lightheartedness, one drew up a fake newspaper with headlines about their trip: “According to the latest information, abominable snowmen live...
Lamar Alexander Just Gave Democrats What They Wanted
Democrats placed their hopes on Senator Lamar Alexander, and last night, the Tennessean brushed those hopes into the dustbin. Alexander announced that he would not vote to call witnesses in the Senate impeachment trial of President Donald Trump, effectively ruling out any chance of introducing new evidence or extending the trial.But if Democrats...
The Virus That Still Has No Name
Since it first appeared in Wuhan, China, late last year, a newly discovered coronavirus has sickened more than 9,800 people, killed at least 213, caused a run on face masks, and shut down travel throughout China. All this has happened, and the virus still doesn’t have an official name.The virus’s temporary designation—2019-nCoV—is...
The Founders Set an Extremely High Bar for Impeachment
The statistics on impeachment are quite stark. Since 1789, 20 federal officials have been impeached by the House; only eight of them were convicted after a Senate trial. None of those, quite obviously, were presidents. And President Donald Trump is unlikely to be the first: In the face of a mountain of evidence regarding his conduct toward...
Democrats Never Found Their Hero
As the final sliver of daylight faded over the Capitol dome last night, it was clear that Democrats’ long, frustrated quest for a deus to save them from Donald Trump would produce no machina after all. Instead, there was only Representative Adam Schiff, the party’s tireless point man in the impeachment trial, who stood in the well of...
The Moral Courage of John Bolton
Give John Bolton his due. By writing a book that apparently corroborates the core argument of those seeking to impeach and remove President Donald Trump, the former national security adviser has shown genuine moral courage. The literature on moral courage helps explain why: It’s because Bolton is an ideological fanatic. His fervent belief...
There Is No Christian Case for Trump
An editorial last month in the evangelical world’s flagship publication, Christianity Today, argued that Donald Trump should be removed from office.The editorial, the last one written by the editor in chief Mark Galli before his planned retirement, heartened those evangelicals who have been unsettled by their co-religionists’...
The Case Against Impeachment Has Nothing to Do With Impeachment
Throughout the caricature of an impeachment trial under way in the Senate, Democrats and the occasional Republican have been urging—begging, actually—Mitch McConnell and his like-minded Republican senators to be fair and/or patriotic and/or honorable when hearing what is a quite damning case of abuse of office, and then to vote their consciences...
Donald Trump’s Jersey Shore Dreams
WILDWOOD, NEW JERSEY—President Donald Trump casually referred to his reelection campaign as “probably the greatest movement in history” last night. He told the several thousand rally-goers inside the Wildwoods Convention Center—and the scores more partying outside and watching a simulcast—that this country “has tremendous potential if we...
