Right and Left React to Senator Bob Corker’s Rebuke of Trump
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Version 0 of 1. The political news cycle is fast, and keeping up can be overwhelming. Trying to find differing perspectives worth your time is even harder. That’s why we have scoured the internet for political writing from the right and left that you might not have seen. Has this series exposed you to new ideas? Tell us how. Email us at ourpicks@nytimes.com. For an archive of all the Partisan Writing Roundups, check out Our Picks. Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry in The Week: Mr. Gobry sees nothing heroic in Senator Bob Corker’s recent criticism of the president in his interview with The New York Times. If the president were indeed a “toddler,” Mr. Gobry asks, why didn’t the senator from Tennessee say so earlier? Mr. Gobry agrees with Mr. Corker that President Trump has behaved in ways that are “grave and alarming.” The only difference is that Mr. Gobry has not “spent the past year obfuscating about that for political gain.” Read more » _____ Jennifer Rubin in The Washington Post: Ms. Rubin, a frequent critic of the president from the right, argues that there is much that other Republicans can learn from Mr. Corker. She writes that Republicans must honestly face the president’s mental health, admit that the president often tells falsehoods and recognize that the real power lies in the Senate — not with the executive branch. Finally, she hopes that more Republican leaders would act without fear of an impending election. “Treating the Senate like their permanent and only available livelihood makes them weak, compliant and intellectually corrupt,” she explains. Read more » _____ Jonah Shepp in New York Magazine: Mr. Shepp does not think that the president’s critics should give Mr. Corker and others like him too much credit. “They had enough evidence to know exactly what kind of erratic person they were hitching their wagons to last year, and went ahead and endorsed him anyway,” he writes. Read more » _____ Yochi Dreazen in Vox: Mr. Dreazen, the managing editor for Vox’s foreign news section, asks his readers to look beyond the personal barbs exchanged between the president and Mr. Corker, and instead look at the substance of Mr. Corker’s critique. Mr. Trump’s escalation of tensions with North Korea has “been so ham-fisted and bellicose that it could trigger a catastrophic war that kills hundreds of thousands or even millions of people, including tens of thousands of Americans.” Read more » _____ James Fallows in The Atlantic: While it is commendable that Mr. Corker has taken his critique of the president public, what is important, writes Mr. Fallows, is what Mr. Corker does next. Mr. Fallows suggests a number of ways that Mr. Corker, as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, can put action behind his message. Perhaps he can subpoena executive branch witnesses, or draft legislation “about the procedure, the grounds, and the justifications before the U.S. commits troops to war.” At the very least, Mr. Fallows argues, Mr. Corker can urge his fellow senators to follow his lead in speaking out. Read more » _____ Chris Cillizza in CNN: After Mr. Trump’s surprise victory in 2016, many pundits ascribed a strategic genius to him and his team that everyone missed. The shorthand for this was saying that he was playing three-dimensional chess while everyone else was playing a more traditional game. According to Mr. Cillizza, however, this latest spat between the president and the senator shows that there is really no strategy at play. Mr. Trump, if he cared about getting tax reform accomplished, Mr. Cillizza writes, would not attack an important and respected member of the Senate. “Hitting everyone who hits you, of course, isn’t a strategy. It’s a tactic. And, not a very good one at that.” Read more » _____ Jonathan Bernstein in Bloomberg: Mr. Bernstein thinks it is important that the news media emphasize how extraordinary it is that someone like Mr. Corker, a prominent member of the president’s party, is so willing to go public with his critique of Mr. Trump. “Senators,” he writes, “even ones who are retiring and have no fear of electoral retribution, simply don’t talk that way about same-party presidents.” Read more » _____ Want the Partisan Writing Roundup in your inbox? Sign up for the Morning Briefing Newsletter or the What We’re Reading Newsletter. Have thoughts about this collection? Email feedback to ourpicks@nytimes.com. |