Full quote:
"We have great agreements where when Biden and Obama used to bring killers out, they would say don’t bring them back to our country, we don’t want them. Well, we have to, we don’t want them. They wouldn’t take them. Now with us, they take them....
...Someday, I’ll tell you why. Someday, I’ll tell you why. But they take them and they take them very gladly. They used to bring them out and they wouldn’t even let the airplanes land if they brought them back by airplanes. They wouldn’t let the buses into their country...
...They said we don’t want them. Said no, but they entered our country illegally and they’re murderers, they’re killers in some cases."
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
Once again, more comprehensively: I wrote what I think about this election before it happened, will put it all together here.
My book Autocracy Inc, described the background, the network of autocrats who seek to undermine democracy, everywhere penguinrandomhouse.com/books/725302/a…
My podcast, Autocracy in America, described the ways in which American democracy was already weakening podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/aut…
Several years ago I wrote another book, Twilight of Democracy, about why people who live in democracies, including people I know, are attracted to the far-right penguinrandomhouse.com/books/621076/t…
Here's what I think. 1. We are living in an incredibly dangerous world. A network of autocracies is now working actively to undermine the democratic world. I wrote about this in my book, Autocracy Inc. Will we fight back? penguinrandomhouse.com/books/725302/a…
American democracy is already failing, in multiple ways. Autocratic tactics are already visible. @peterpomeranzev and I described some of them in our podcast, Autocracy in America. theatlantic.com/podcasts/autoc…
If you want to know more: Here is the ICC arrest warrant for Putin "for the war crime of unlawful deportation of population (children) and that of unlawful transfer of population (children) from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation" icc-cpi.int/news/situation…
Five weeks from now, my new book will be published: Autocracy, Inc: The Dictators Who Want to Rule the World. It’s a short book, an argument, really, about the way the world now works...Read the introduction here: anneapplebaum.substack.com/p/autocracy-inc
At the center of the book is a network (not an axis, alliance or bloc) of dictatorships. They are not united ideologically. They do not meet either openly or secretly to make policy. They have many conflicts with one another.
The only thing that brings them together is their dislike of the democratic world, whose language and ideals are a threat to their power. The book focuses on what they have in common: kleptocracy, information war tactics, diplomatic/military ties and a common approach to dissent.
Czech intelligence services have uncovered a Russian influence operation, based in Prague, designed to influence elections across Europe. They have placed sanctions on "Voice of Europe," a website that promoted far-right politicians and parties.
Here's a Reuters article in English on the subject. Also sanctioned are Viktor Medvedchuk, a pro-Russian Ukrainian, friend of Putin and funder of this operation and others. (Ukrainians arrested him at the beginning of the war and then traded him for POWs) reuters.com/world/europe/c…