Tag: Impeachment
Stevenson’s army, December 4
– Julia Joffe paints a devastating picture of State under Trump — 52% of ambassadors are political.
– Dennis Jett piles on with more details about the political appointees.
– But in Congress there’s a new Diplomacy Caucus.
– CFR finds Americans ignorant about many foreign policy matters.
– Maybe Israel was behind long delay in giving Lebanon aid.
– Dexter Filkins looks at PM Modi and changing India.
-Optional reading: House Intell Committee report.
My SAIS colleague Charlie Stevenson distributes this almost daily news digest of foreign/defense/national security policy to “Stevenson’s army” via Googlegroups. I plan to republish here. If you want to get it directly, To get Stevenson’s army by email, send a blank email (no subject or text in the body) to stevensons-army+subscribe@googlegroups.com. You’ll get an email confirming your join request. Click “Join This Group” and follow the instructions to join. Once you have joined, you can adjust your email delivery preferences (if you want every email or a digest of the emails).
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Stevenson’s army, November 23
– We’ve talked in class about how presidential perks are part of the chief executive’s toolkit. WaPo has a story about how the White House is using Camp David as a venue for wooing Republicans.
-NYT says US intelligence briefings finger Russia as source of claims of Ukrainian influence in US elections.
-A Chinese defector to Australia details Chinese operations in Taiwan and Hong Kong.
– WSJ reports CFIUS has increased its investigations even before new law took effect.
My SAIS colleague Charlie Stevenson distributes this almost daily news digest of foreign/defense/national security policy to “Stevenson’s army” via Googlegroups. I plan to republish here. If you want to get it directly, To get Stevenson’s army by email, send a blank email (no subject or text in the body) to stevensons-army+subscribe@googlegroups.com. You’ll get an email confirming your join request. Click “Join This Group” and follow the instructions to join. Once you have joined, you can adjust your email delivery preferences (if you want every email or a digest of the emails).
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Nothing new, everything clear
The testimony of former National Security Council staffer Fiona Hill and Foreign Service officer David Holmes today has confirmed what we already knew: President Trump was pressing Ukrainian President Zelensky for investigations not to serve the nation’s interest, but rather to serve Trump’s own electoral ambitions. Russian security services planted the cock and bull story Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, was plugging about Ukrainian involvement in interfering in the 2016 US election and the need for an investigation of the Bidens, father and son.
Combined with US Ambassador to the EU Sondland’s testimony yesterday, it is clear that not only Trump but also Secretary of State Pompeo and Acting OMB Director Mulvaney were in on this scheme to defraud the American people and give Trump a leg up in the 2020 electoral contest. This was no rogue operation but a conspiracy against the United States that the President directed. How anyone at this point can stomach the thought of such a president in the White House is beyond me. Just imagine how Republicans would have reacted had President Obama done something comparable. I guarantee most Democrats in the Senate would not have stayed loyal.
So far however the Republicans have, because they don’t see the loss of Trump’s popularity in the electorate that would endanger their own re-election campaigns. They are putting at risk the national security of the United States for their own interests. Just remember this: Russian President Putin, whose services surely listen to non-encrypted phone calls with the White House, knew what was going on and could use that knowledge to blackmail Trump. Not that they necessarily had to: he seems to be at the very least a willing Moscow dupe, and maybe an agent.
It is high time America is rescued from this nightmare Administration, where the principal architect of immigration policy is a white supremacist, the Secretary of State is an evangelical ideologue, and the Attorney General is a partisan hack, not to mention the extremists determined to undermine their own agencies leading Commerce, Education, Interior, and other government departments and several embassies. Honest non-partisan experts are fleeing in droves. Inexperienced careerists are everywhere. None of it is new, all of it is clear.
PS November 22: Laurence Tribe did a great job of drawing out the conclusions on Lawrence O’Donnell’s MSNBC show last night:
Here is a Fox News commentator who sees the situation much as Tribe does:
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Stevenson’s army, November 21
– To me, the most significant foreign policy exchange in the Democratic presidential candidate debate was the widespread sharp criticism of Saudi Arabia. I don’t see how any of them can back off that if elected.
– Meanwhile, the US is sending more troops to Saudi Arabia.
– But DOD denies planning troop withdrawals from South Korea.
– FP article raises a concern I share — the vulnerability of US forces given advanced technology available to others.
– The docudrama about the Senate Intelligence Committee’s “torture report” opens in theaters and will stream after Thanksgiving. RollCall tells a story about how the key staffer found his way in DC through networking. Good lessons for Hill job seekers.
My SAIS colleague Charlie Stevenson distributes this almost daily news digest of foreign/defense/national security policy to “Stevenson’s army” via Googlegroups. I plan to republish here. If you want to get it directly, To get Stevenson’s army by email, send a blank email (no subject or text in the body) to stevensons-army+subscribe@googlegroups.com. You’ll get an email confirming your join request. Click “Join This Group” and follow the instructions to join. Once you have joined, you can adjust your email delivery preferences (if you want every email or a digest of the emails).
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Stevenson’s army, November 20
– Time says Pompeo is looking to leave for Kansas. NYT says Sondland worked closely with him on Ukraine.
– I strongly agree with this new FA article urging a unified national security budget. And with this congressional suggestion for a 5G coordinator.
– Senate has passed a Hong Kong bill, needs to be reconciled with House.
– ISIS expected to grow back,US intell says.
[Notice what 5-letter name beginning with T I didn’t mention.]
My SAIS colleague Charlie Stevenson distributes this almost daily news digest of foreign/defense/national security policy to “Stevenson’s army” via Googlegroups. I plan to republish here. If you want to get it directly, To get Stevenson’s army by email, send a blank email (no subject or text in the body) to stevensons-army+subscribe@googlegroups.com. You’ll get an email confirming your join request. Click “Join This Group” and follow the instructions to join. Once you have joined, you can adjust your email delivery preferences (if you want every email or a digest of the emails).
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QED quid pro quo
US Ambassador to the European Union confirmed to the House of Representatives under oath today that he was acting on instructions from President Trump with the knowledge of the National Security Council and the State Department in demanding that Ukraine initiate investigations of former Vice President Biden and his son in exchange for already appropriated military aid. This is corrupt abuse of power: using US government assets to extort and bribe a foreign sovereign into providing assistance to President Trump’s re-election efforts.
Or more simply: it proves that President Trump ordered Sondland to pursue a corrupt purpose.
That this behavior is impeachable is beyond doubt. It is precisely the kind of behavior the US Constitution envisages as justifying not only investigation but also impeachment, followed by trial in the Senate.
There’s the rub. The Senate would have to vote by a two-thirds majority to remove Trump from office. There is no sign yet that the 20 Republicans needed to vote against him are likely to be available.
Any normal president would be chastened by today’s testimony and the impeachment that will follow, even if he were confident of winning the vote in the Senate. That won’t be Trump’s reaction. He will unleash a torrent of attacks against witnesses (especially those who are women), Democrats, and the world for treating him worse than has ever been treated before. This hyperbole feeds Fox News commentary and mobilizes his base, which not only believes what he says but is deaf to factual refutation.
Only when the country starts turning against Trump will the Senate Republicans find their courage. If they conclude they are going down with him, they will shift towards approving his removal from office. There is no evidence yet of that. The White House is doing everything it can to ensure that the shift doesn’t begin, because once it does they fear an avalanche. Senators are being threatened with primary fights and cajoled with every means available.
Meanwhile the nation’s foreign policy is mostly on neglectful autopilot, which may be the best we can hope for. There are no signs of real movement toward US objectives in North Korea, Venezuela, or Iran, all Trump Administration priorities. Russian military operations contrary to US interests continue in Ukraine and in Syria. The trade war with China continues to slow world and US economic growth.
Only on Israel has the Administration moved the ball lately, in the wrong direction: Secretary Pompeo has reversed US policy on West Bank settlements, claiming they are not inconsistent with international law. That is patent nonsense intended to feed another bone to Trump’s evangelical supporters, who like Greater Israel. The Administration has in practice abandoned the two-state solution, setting up the Palestinians either to struggle to restore or to claim equal rights within Greater Israel, where they would constitute a majority. No one who supports Israel should want either of those things to happen.
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