Articles for December, 2019

Trump's scandals will haunt America for years

Trump's scandals will haunt America for yearsThe year 2020 will most likely mark the end of President Trump's impeachment saga, but it won't stop the flow of scandals from this White House. It probably won't even bring real resolution to the Ukraine scandal that set the impeachment in motion.We might be stuck with the refuse of this presidency forever, condemned to an endless stream of revelations long after Trump himself has left the scene.To understand why, one only has to look at this weekend's report from The New York Times offering new revelations about the Ukraine scandal — including news that Defense Secretary Mark Esper, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and then-National Security Adviser John Bolton fruitlessly joined forces to oppose the freezing of military aid. Trump, the Times reported, refused their entreaties.Some observers suggested the new revelations should increase the pressure on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to allow new witnesses at the impeachment trial, whenever it presumably takes place."Many of these officials who were directly involved with Trump's freezing of aid are the same ones Trump blocked from appearing before the House impeachment inquiry," wrote Greg Sargent at The Washington Post. "This should make it inescapable that McConnell wants a trial with no testimony from these people ... precisely because he, too, wants to prevent us from ever gaining a full accounting."It is, of course, impossible to shame McConnell into doing anything he doesn't want to do. But that doesn't mean he can prevent a full accounting. Instead, the Times report — coming after impeachment itself was already completed in the House — suggests our understanding of the scandal will evolve for years to come, as documents emerge and administration officials decide to put their memories on the record.We know this for a couple of reasons.First, there is no shortage of source material. Former Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation of the Trump campaign's connections with Russia may be over, but it wasn't complete: The president obstructed the investigation, and Mueller himself left open the question of whether Trump colluded with foreign agents to influence the election. "If we had had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said so," the prosecutor said at a press appearance in May. Between the loose ends of that investigation and the untapped testimony of the Ukraine matter, there is still a lot of information out there yet to be revealed. We may not find out all of Trump's secrets anytime soon, but we'll probably learn a lot of them, and the revelations will not be pretty. What we do know is already ugly enough to warrant the rare act of impeachment.We also know that big scandals tend to endure, and to give up their secrets over the years and decades. That is true even when we have, as a society, achieved some level of closure. Former President Richard Nixon resigned after the Watergate scandal led him to the precipice of impeachment, but the slow release of tapes and documents, as well as congressional efforts to prevent another administration from repeating Nixon's sins, kept the story alive in the headlines for years. It took three decades for "Deep Throat" to be outed as former FBI official Mark Felt in 2005, and that was still one of the biggest stories of the year.The Trump administration will be making new — possibly shocking — headlines for many years to come. Yesterday it was Russia. Today it's Ukraine. Tomorrow it might be something else entirely. This is a never-ending scandal.This Senate almost certainly will not oust Trump. So the best we can hope for is that history buries him under piles of ignominy and shame. That is small consolation — we live in the here and now, when we would benefit more from this president leaving office than we will from the judgment of history. But Trump's eternal loss of face in tomorrow's textbooks may have to do as consolation. The impeachment process is nearly complete, but our collective reckoning with Trump's behavior has just begun.Want more essential commentary and analysis like this delivered straight to your inbox? Sign up for The Week's "Today's best articles" newsletter here.More stories from theweek.com The Obama legacy is not what many liberals think Carlos Ghosn managed to flee Japan by hiding in a musical instrument case Trump's State Department reportedly launched a full-fledged investigation to find out which employee liked a Chelsea Clinton tweet


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Trump's scandals will haunt America for years

Trump's scandals will haunt America for yearsThe year 2020 will most likely mark the end of President Trump's impeachment saga, but it won't stop the flow of scandals from this White House. It probably won't even bring real resolution to the Ukraine scandal that set the impeachment in motion.We might be stuck with the refuse of this presidency forever, condemned to an endless stream of revelations long after Trump himself has left the scene.To understand why, one only has to look at this weekend's report from The New York Times offering new revelations about the Ukraine scandal — including news that Defense Secretary Mark Esper, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and then-National Security Adviser John Bolton fruitlessly joined forces to oppose the freezing of military aid. Trump, the Times reported, refused their entreaties.Some observers suggested the new revelations should increase the pressure on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to allow new witnesses at the impeachment trial, whenever it presumably takes place."Many of these officials who were directly involved with Trump's freezing of aid are the same ones Trump blocked from appearing before the House impeachment inquiry," wrote Greg Sargent at The Washington Post. "This should make it inescapable that McConnell wants a trial with no testimony from these people ... precisely because he, too, wants to prevent us from ever gaining a full accounting."It is, of course, impossible to shame McConnell into doing anything he doesn't want to do. But that doesn't mean he can prevent a full accounting. Instead, the Times report — coming after impeachment itself was already completed in the House — suggests our understanding of the scandal will evolve for years to come, as documents emerge and administration officials decide to put their memories on the record.We know this for a couple of reasons.First, there is no shortage of source material. Former Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation of the Trump campaign's connections with Russia may be over, but it wasn't complete: The president obstructed the investigation, and Mueller himself left open the question of whether Trump colluded with foreign agents to influence the election. "If we had had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said so," the prosecutor said at a press appearance in May. Between the loose ends of that investigation and the untapped testimony of the Ukraine matter, there is still a lot of information out there yet to be revealed. We may not find out all of Trump's secrets anytime soon, but we'll probably learn a lot of them, and the revelations will not be pretty. What we do know is already ugly enough to warrant the rare act of impeachment.We also know that big scandals tend to endure, and to give up their secrets over the years and decades. That is true even when we have, as a society, achieved some level of closure. Former President Richard Nixon resigned after the Watergate scandal led him to the precipice of impeachment, but the slow release of tapes and documents, as well as congressional efforts to prevent another administration from repeating Nixon's sins, kept the story alive in the headlines for years. It took three decades for "Deep Throat" to be outed as former FBI official Mark Felt in 2005, and that was still one of the biggest stories of the year.The Trump administration will be making new — possibly shocking — headlines for many years to come. Yesterday it was Russia. Today it's Ukraine. Tomorrow it might be something else entirely. This is a never-ending scandal.This Senate almost certainly will not oust Trump. So the best we can hope for is that history buries him under piles of ignominy and shame. That is small consolation — we live in the here and now, when we would benefit more from this president leaving office than we will from the judgment of history. But Trump's eternal loss of face in tomorrow's textbooks may have to do as consolation. The impeachment process is nearly complete, but our collective reckoning with Trump's behavior has just begun.Want more essential commentary and analysis like this delivered straight to your inbox? Sign up for The Week's "Today's best articles" newsletter here.More stories from theweek.com The Obama legacy is not what many liberals think Carlos Ghosn managed to flee Japan by hiding in a musical instrument case Trump's State Department reportedly launched a full-fledged investigation to find out which employee liked a Chelsea Clinton tweet


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R.I.P. Love — Here Are The 19 Biggest Celebrity Breakups Of 2019
All the most shocking celebrity breakups in 2019, from Miley Cyrus and Liam Hemsworth to Kylie Jenner and Travis Scott.
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Revisit 21 Iconic Celebrity Cameos From Sex and the City
The onset of the new year is prime time for planning ahead. But before diving into the next decade, consider waving goodbye to this one alongside a particularly legendary group of women--in...
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27 stunning photos of the cosmos taken this year

27 stunning photos of the cosmos taken this yearThis was a year of photographic firsts, from the very first image of a black hole to the world's first photo taken on the far side of the moon.


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PHOTOS: Iraqi Shiites break into U.S. Embassy in Baghdad
Dozens of Iraqi Shiite militiamen and their supporters broke into the U.S. Embassy compound in Baghdad on Tuesday, smashing a main door and setting fire to a reception area, prompting tear gas and sounds of gunfire, angered over deadly U.S. airstrikes ...
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Huawei says it will generate a record $122 billion in annual revenue despite US sanctions

Huawei says it will generate a record $122 billion in annual revenue despite US sanctionsThe $122 billion figure would, however, fall short of Huawei's own annual revenue projections for 2019.


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Huawei says it will generate a record $122 billion in annual revenue despite US sanctions

Huawei says it will generate a record $122 billion in annual revenue despite US sanctionsThe $122 billion figure would, however, fall short of Huawei's own annual revenue projections for 2019.


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O’Reilly calls for action on suicide figures – Anglo Celt
O'Reilly calls for action on suicide figures  Anglo Celt
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Putin, Ukraine's leader talk about natural gas, prisoners
The presidents of Russia and Ukraine have spoken by telephone to express satisfaction with a newly signed contract on natural gas transit and the recent exchange of prisoners between Ukraine and Russia-backed rebels in Ukraine's east. A Kremlin statem...
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