“These are the actions of a man who believes he is above the law — precisely the kind of conduct Congressional Republicans enabled,” Schiff said in a tweet.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) praised Vindman, recipient of a Purple Heart, as “an American patriot.” She also needled Trump, saying he “is impeached forever.”
“The shameful firing of Colonel Vindman was a clear and brazen act of retaliation that showcases the president’s fear of the truth,” Pelosi said in a statement. “The president’s vindictiveness is precisely what led Republican Senators to be accomplices to his cover-up. The firing of this patriotic soldier is a sad and shameless loss for America’s security.”
www.washingtonpost.com/…
Beyond the immediate outrage and weakening of our national security, however, the New York Times opines that this represents more “Trumpification” of the NSC, which bodes ill for our national security, for governmental accountability and transparency and of course for our elections.
In his opinion piece national security expert John Gans reflects that the removal of Lt. Colonel Vindman is part of a reduction in forces at NSC under Robert O’Brien.
Over the last six months, while impeachment dominated the news, Mr. O’Brien undertook the first restructuring of the council in a generation. He cut 60 to 70 positions, about a third of the staff, many of them career professionals. He also directed that the National Security Council focus less on transnational issues like global economics and nonproliferation, and more on bilateral and geographic priorities. In all, Mr. O’Brien’s trumpification of the staff will hamper the United States’ ability to meet the world’s challenges, and hamstring the next president.
The staff of the National Security Council has evolved since its creation in the National Security Act of 1947, which sought to connect the various departments and agencies that together drive the nation’s foreign policy. At first, the staff served merely as administrative clerks to the principals on the National Security Council — the president, secretaries of state and defense and other leaders. According to its first director, the staff coordinated and integrated the “ideas in crisscrossing proposals” from around government.
But over the years, various presidents have coopted the council’s staff, which grew both bigger and more influential, especially after 9/11 — to the point where it not only distributes a meeting’s agenda, but sets the government’s.
Trumpism, though, is at odds with American policy as it’s evolved not only since WWII but since 9/11 — and more importantly perhaps with our role as a major world power both militarily and economically; and as part of a family of nations.
The “America First” doctrine of Trumpism is not only an echo of the pro-German, neo-isolationism of the 1930’s it’s antagonistic to the existing order of things. I don’t know how much influence Bannon still has at the White House but I expect it’s larger than we’d like. Stephen Miller is still there obviously (enough said) but Bannon may still be a player behind the scenes. And his game is chaos. It’s the destruction of our existing alliances. He is an extremist. Weakening NSC is in this light especially sinister.
From the article,
Mr. Trump inherited from Barack Obama the most powerful National Security Council in history. But the new president struggled to win over the hundreds of staff members who’d fought for the sorts of globalist policies — like trade deals and alliances — he had long opposed. Mr. Trump certainly tried to conquer the staff, naming a loyalist retired lieutenant general, Michael Flynn, as his first national security adviser and his nationalist adviser Steve Bannon to a high-level committee within it. The message was, as a Trump hire told one member of the staff, “The president doesn’t care about the things you care about, and the sooner that you know about it, the better.”
www.nytimes.com/…
Temporarily, at least, outrage over this state of affairs, Flynn’s legal troubles and Bannon’s ouster quelled the tempest. But as Trump’s moderate advisors quit or were fired, other extremists took their places and there are now, essentially, no guardrails left at all.
The GOP in Congress has abnegated responsibility and abandoned America to heaven knows what fate.
Trump has taken his revenge on a decorated war veteran, a true patriot and his twin brother and elevated a war criminal to high status.
Trump shames us all by draping a Medal of Freedom around the vicious neck of Rush Limbaugh, racist and hatemonger extraordinaire.
The Senate gives him a free pass to let whoever or whatever through the door of the White House, and has weakened and politicized key agencies that have kept us prosperous, free and safe for decades and prevented world wars and nuclear catastrophe.
We’d better not lose this November.
Winning House, Senate and kicking these traitors out of the White House is critical.
I pray we can pull it together before then.
I don’t really care at this point who is chosen to be our nominee. I will vote for Bernie, Bloomberg, Liz, Pete, Joe, Tom Steyer, Yang, or any combination thereof.
But we do need to focus on the Senate.
Four more years of this and I fear we won’t recognize our country.