John Kerry, Marie Yovanovitch, and Colin Powell assail Trump's foreign policy choices at DNC
Former diplomats from both sides of the aisle presented a unified case against President Trump on Tuesday at the Democratic National Convention.
The DNC's second night featured a whole section focused on presidential nominee Joe Biden's foreign policy experience and Trump's apparent lack of it. Former Secretary of State John Kerry kicked off the diplomatic smackdown, a selection of former foreign service officials came next, and former Secretary of State Colin Powell — a lifelong Republican — finished the segment with a dose of bipartisanship.
In his address, Kerry, a former presidential nominee himself, delivered an excoriating rebuke of Trump's diplomatic record — or his "blooper reel," as Kerry called it. "Donald Trump pretends Russia didn’t attack our elections. And now, he does nothing about Russia putting a bounty on our troops," Kerry said, declaring "the only person he's interested in defending is himself."
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
A video montage followed featuring a number of career foreign service officials, including Marie Yovanovitch, whom Trump removed as U.S. ambassador to Ukraine. Yovanovitch, who testified against Trump in his impeachment trial, went more positive on Biden than negative on Trump, saying Biden would "do the right thing, no matter the cost."
Then came Powell, who served under former President George W. Bush.
He praised Biden's "values," and then declared "we are a country divided, and we have a president doing everything in his power to make it that way and keep us that way."
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Kathryn is a graduate of Syracuse University, with degrees in magazine journalism and information technology, along with hours to earn another degree after working at SU's independent paper The Daily Orange. She's currently recovering from a horse addiction while living in New York City, and likes to share her extremely dry sense of humor on Twitter.
-
Trump boosts gas cars in fuel economy rollbackspeed read Watering down fuel efficiency standards is another blow to former President Biden’s effort to boost electric vehicles
-
Hegseth’s Signal chat put troops in peril, probe findsSpeed Read The defense secretary risked the lives of military personnel and violated Pentagon rules, says new report
-
Texas is trying to become America’s next financial hubIn the Spotlight The Lone Star State could soon have three major stock exchanges
-
Trump boosts gas cars in fuel economy rollbackspeed read Watering down fuel efficiency standards is another blow to former President Biden’s effort to boost electric vehicles
-
Hegseth’s Signal chat put troops in peril, probe findsSpeed Read The defense secretary risked the lives of military personnel and violated Pentagon rules, says new report
-
Trump pardons Texas Democratic congressmanspeed read Rep. Henry Cuellar was charged with accepting foreign bribes tied to Azerbaijan and Mexico
-
GOP wins tight House race in red Tennessee districtSpeed Read Republicans maintained their advantage in the House
-
Trump targets ‘garbage’ Somalis ahead of ICE raidsSpeed Read The Department of Homeland Security will launch an immigration operation targeting Somali immigrants in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area
-
Hegseth blames ‘fog of war’ for potential war crimespeed read ‘I did not personally see survivors,’ Hegseth said at a Cabinet meeting
-
Canada joins EU’s $170B SAFE defense fundspeed read This makes it the first non-European Union country in the Security Action for Europe (SAFE) initiative
-
Appeals court disqualifies US Attorney Alina HabbaSpeed Read The former personal attorney to President Donald Trump has been unlawfully serving as US attorney for New Jersey, the ruling says
