positions on the NSC or being ambassador to the European Union are hardly civil service jobs. I'm not sure I understand your point.
wrong in the sense that is out of today norm and it is a revenge Our gov standard under trump is going down the toilet and this is a new “acceptable” behavior for some... it might look like a small thing but it’s another door cracked open toward an authoritarian form of government... once established as a new norm, it will swing wide open and trump is a character that has proven to take full advantage of it so yes, it’s is wrong today but might become perfectly not wrong tomorrow
Government jobs that should be merit-based but I get your point. Obviously things would be awkward between Vindman and Trump following this. Your mixed-motives argument is valid. It’s so beyond the stratosphere that the president didn’t apologize for the way he conducted foreign policy and didn’t acknowledge that Vindman was just doing his job though. Well, it’s Trump so not a big surprise.
This argument that Trump isn’t moving these people because of vengeance ignores that he said there would be payback. You don’t have to psychoanalyze him or search for other rationales when he tells you why he is doing. This is exactly the same as impeachment. He told everyone he was out to investigate the Bidens and he wanted Ukraine to do him a favor and help him with that.
The worst part of the (obvious, sorry) retribution game is that Trump will continue to narrow his group of confidantes to an increasingly spineless and stupid group of yes men. It’s hard to imagine who he’ll have left after year 6 or so of this. No military people at all, I would guess, and almost zero legit business people. Probably just some mix of white nationalists, predatory lenders, child molesters, and for-profit university folks. I wish that felt like more of an exaggeration. Ugh.
yeah, it’s not technically illegal or anything. but at a private company, an at-will employee can still sue for wrongful termination if he felt it was purely retribution and otherwise had great performance evals. Still might be a steep climb in civil court. It’s just a bad look. That’s it. Wonder if it lost him some military votes? You know, the way AOC always loses votes when she gets up in the morning.
People can think it is "wrong" or "questionable"...... the question is if it is criminal and it isn't. Trump is in the public eye, and people have the right to question his motives.
I am surprised the number isn't higher. It was very clearly a politically aligned outcome. Before there was even a hearing senators on both sides were stating how they would vote. The actual hearings were not good for the President.... it made him look really bad and most the polling after that substantiated that. Will in matter in 6 months? Maybe not
More evidence comes out... Exclusive: New Unredacted Emails Show How Deeply OMB Misled Congress on Ukraine https://www.justsecurity.org/68614/...ow-how-deeply-omb-misled-congress-on-ukraine/
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/02/13/trump-phone-calls-world-leaders-114997 Another impeachment lesson (besides politicizing every possible gov-t office/branch in DC): keep your perfect conversations with foreign nations private. Who could doubt or possibly help this stable genius to conduct a beautiful geopolitical job free of policy mistakes or conflicts of interest. Will be interesting to see how many foreign towers/casinos/universities Trump gets approved upon end of his presidency. I'm especially waiting on the North Korean hospitality industry's rocket growth. Heh
Trump is now tying the denial of the Trusted Traveler program to NY residents to lawsuits from NY State targeting him. Here is the an article on it: https://www.politico.com/news/2020/02/13/trump-new-york-investigations-114991 Trump accused of another quid pro quo, this time with New York "He's holding New York state hostage to try to stop investigations into his prior tax fraud," tweeted Rep. Val Demings. "Trump continued, “New York must stop all of its unnecessary lawsuits & harrassment, start cleaning itself up, and lowering taxes.” Trump’s invocation of “lawsuits & harrassment” was a reference to the state’s numerous lawsuits against his administration and also against Trump’s business, which is based in New York." More at link