A Consequential Week In Washington

FRED WERTHEIMER’S WEEKLY NOTE | October 24, 2019

“This is not a time to be overconfident, but it is a good time to be a Nats fan.”

This has been a consequential week in Washington.

First and foremost was the testimony on Tuesday of William Taylor, former Ambassador to Ukraine and currently the charge d’affaires for the country.

Taylor detailed the effort by President Trump to hold hostage $400 million in military assistance for our ally, Ukraine, which needed the money to resist our adversary, Russia, until the Ukrainian president publicly announced Ukraine would investigate the activities of former Vice President Biden and his son in his country.

Taylor’s testimony was the most powerful evidence to date that President Trump seriously damaged our national security interests, extorted the leader of a foreign country, illegally solicited the involvement of a foreign country to interfere in our elections, and abused the presidency for his personal political interests.

On Wednesday, the House also passed the important SHIELD Act to strengthen the laws preventing foreign interference in our elections, which is already being undertaken again by Russia.

Also on Wednesday, while not one House Republican voted for the SHIELD Act, a couple dozen House Republicans stormed the House Intelligence Committee’s secure meeting room in a childish act of desperation to “defend” Trump. In doing so, they violated the secure facility’s prohibition on the use of cell phones in the room.

Last and least consequential in the scheme of things this week, but still of great importance to long-suffering Washington baseball fans (including me), the Washington Nationals beat the prohibitive favorites, the Houston Astros, in the first two games of the World Series. The Nationals have now won 18 of their last 20 games. Post-season comebacks – even coming back from 0-2 deficits — have happened. And baseball fans have not forgotten the Red Sox’s come back from a 3-0 deficit to defeat the Yankees in the 2004 ALCS.

So, this is not a time to be overconfident, but it is a good time to be a Nats fan.

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Fred Wertheimer is the Founder and President of Democracy 21, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that works to strengthen our democracy and ensure the integrity and fairness of government decisions and elections. See previous Notes from Fred here.