Section: The Atlantic (USA)
The Democratic Senator With a Warning for His Party
Senator Chris Coons has a warning for his fellow Democrats: Check your anti-Trump fervor.“I understand the level of passion in my party about opposing Donald Trump,” the Delaware senator told me in an interview yesterday, “but I do think we have to be cautious about not engaging in the same kind of withering intraparty contests to prove our...
If Anyone Puts America First, It’s Soldiers Like Alexander Vindman
From the earliest days of our nation, the armed forces have included volunteers born in foreign countries—men like Revolutionary War heroes Colonel Thaddeus Kosciuszko of Poland, whose statue stands at the center of my alma mater, West Point; General Lafayette of France; and General Friedrich Von Steuben of Prussia. Without them, the American...
Obama Wants to Be More Than a Trump Subtweet
CHICAGO—America already knows what Barack Obama thinks about Donald Trump (the man) and Donald Trump (the president). For the past four years, nearly everything in politics has seemed to be about just the two of them—and in a way, everything is.Each is an archetype: the man who grew up without a father versus the man who inherited his...
Republicans Have Only Three Choices
Is Alexander Vindman’s testimony the smoking gun of the Ukraine scandal? Or was it Bill Taylor’s? Was it Gordon Sondland’s decision to defy the White House and speak? Was it the whistle-blower complaint, or the partial transcript that the White House itself released?Just as in previous Trump-related scandals, there are plenty of...
Trump’s Dark Assumption About America
A dark assumption seems baked into Donald Trump’s effort to strong-arm foreign leaders into unearthing dirt on Joe Biden—that Trump’s reelection victory is in the nation’s interests, because he and the nation are one and the same.When that is a president’s mindset, schemes that might seem unsavory and possibly impeachable...
The Appalling Attacks on Alexander Vindman
The White House can’t muster a substantive defense of President Trump’s behavior toward Ukraine. Democrats more or less gave way to Republican process complaints about impeachment on Monday. So with few other options left, Trump and his allies are returning to the mode that got him elected in the first place: toxic xenophobia.Monday...
Concerning the Process of Impeachment
Ambassador Bill Taylor is concerned about process. The long-time diplomat—who began his career as a West Point cadet, went on to a role as an infantry officer in Vietnam, and now serves as a chief of mission in Ukraine—reluctantly took his current position in Kyiv only to discover what he called last week “a confusing and unusual arrangement for...
Nancy Pelosi’s Big Move
After weeks of shooting down demands from Republicans and the White House that the House formally vote on impeachment, Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced that on Thursday, lawmakers would vote on a resolution “that affirms our ongoing, existing investigation.”In other words: The impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump will soon get its...
John Kelly’s Astonishing Accusation
Accepting the Republican nomination for president three years ago, Donald Trump told delegates in Cleveland, “I alone can fix it.”John Kelly, Trump’s former White House chief of staff, offered an alternative on Saturday: Aides alone can fix it.Speaking at the Washington Examiner’s Sea Island Summit, Kelly took an implicit swipe at his...
How Trump Will Use Baghdadi for the Next Year
It was the cinematic moment Donald Trump had been craving at this perilous point in his presidency—and when it arrived, he made sure it didn’t go to waste. President Trump’s vivid—perhaps too vivid?—re-creation of the U.S. Special Forces raid that killed the Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi Saturday night is sure to become a...
