Section: The Atlantic (USA)
Democracy Versus Kleptocracy
Ever since the earliest years of this century, Ukraine has been the contested frontier in a grand ideological struggle between the forces of democracy and kleptocracy.It was in Ukraine that Russia tested the misinformation tactics that it used in the American presidential election of 2016. And when Russia meddled in the U.S. campaign, one of its...
Why America Needs Ukraine
Vladimir Putin considers Ukraine to be his backyard. It shares a nearly 1,500-mile border with Russia, was part of the Soviet Union, and for centuries has been referred to as “Little Russia” by domineering leaders of its northern neighbor. The ousting of Ukraine’s Kremlin-backed president after mass protest in 2014 preceded Putin’s...
What Happened in Ukraine?
One of the more confusing things about the current controversy swirling over Ukraine is the superficial similarity between former Vice President Joe Biden’s actions there during the Obama administration and President Donald Trump’s more recent actions.Both Biden and Trump pressured the Ukrainian government about corruption...
What the First Whistle-Blowers Taught America
At the dawn of the United States, before the Constitution, and more than 240 years before a U.S. intelligence source filed a whistle-blower complaint against President Donald Trump, Americans clearly understood the damage that high-ranking government officials can do if they use their public authority for private gain.Esek Hopkins, a Rhode Island...
The Atlantic Politics Daily: ‘Now We Have the Facts’
We’re trying something new with The Atlantic’s signature politics newsletter. Comments or questions? Send us an email anytime. Were you forwarded this email? Sign yourself up here. We appreciate your continued support for our journalism. Today in Politics(Jonathan Ernst / Reuters)Impeachment SeasonFrom virtually the moment that...
‘No One Is Above the Law’
Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced today that the House will launch an impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump. The move follows a sudden shift in the Democratic caucus over the past week, as allegations that the president pressured Ukraine to boost his reelection prospects swirled. Many previously reticent Democrats, chief among them Pelosi...
Trump Is Discovering New Powers
Knowing he was new to all this, White House aides took pains early in President Donald Trump’s term to chaperone him when he got on the phone with world leaders. Former National Security Adviser H. R. McMaster, the economic adviser Gary Cohn, and others would sit around the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office and listen to both ends of the...
Nancy Pelosi Has Had Enough
Nancy Pelosi has spent the first nine months of her second stint as House speaker politely but firmly resisting pressure to impeach President Donald Trump.She may be done resisting.Pelosi, in an interview this afternoon with The Atlantic’s Editor in Chief Jeffrey Goldberg, came as close as she has ever come to declaring her support for a...
‘When Everybody Else Said It Nicely, We Didn’t React’
The tiny nation of Estonia literally tests the limits of NATO, perched as it is on the military bloc’s border with Russia.It’s a precarious place to be when President Donald Trump has repeatedly expressed reluctance to defend members of the alliance in the event of an attack.And its people are all too familiar with attacks: The Soviet...
We’ve Reached the Breaking Point
In June 2019, President Trump was enjoying a rare respite from scandal. He had successfully squelched the Mueller investigation. Mueller had agreed to abide by Department of Justice guidance that the president could not be indicted for violating any criminal law. Since Mueller had also limited his examination of “collusion” to potential...
