1/ Later today I am departing on a brief but important trip to Kenya. With China and Russia increasing their investments in East Africa, the U.S.-Kenya relationship is of growing importance to Congress.
I want to explain why and tell you what I’ll be doing on this trip.
2/ In many ways, Kenya is the center of gravity in East Africa. The economy is booming, full of opportunity for U.S. and Connecticut companies. Dubbed "Silicon Savannah", Kenya is also home to Africa's largest wind farm. And it has a dynamic civil society and independent media.
3/ Kenya is also a key diplomatic partner. Kenya’s efforts to end conflict raging in East Africa are critical to address some of the most horrific humanitarian crises on the planet, prevent future atrocities, and eliminate the main driver of human displacement.
Lost amidst Trump’s rambling incoherence about Afghanistan today is the fact that he negotiated the withdrawal of U.S. forces with the Taliban, not Biden.
1/ Here are the facts about how Biden was handed a giant mess from Trump in Afghanistan.
2/ Trump made a deal with the Taliban to completely withdraw U.S. forces by May 1, 2021. When Biden took office, he negotiated a short extension for full withdrawal to August 2021, but he could not alter the fundamental terms of the agreement. nytimes.com/2020/02/29/wor…
3/ Trump had boxed Biden in. If Biden reneged on that agreement, Taliban attacks on American servicemembers would have restarted, forcing us to send thousands more troops back into the conflict. Very few Americans would have supported this endless commitment.
There is little accountability for failed U.S. foreign policy. It's why we make the same mistakes over and over.
1/ So as Venezuela careens into another crisis, this is a moment to understand the stumbling, spectacular mess that Trump made there. reuters.com/world/americas…
2/ The 2018 elections were marred by fraud. Trump recognized the loser of the election as president. At the time @brhodes and I applauded Trump for standing for democracy, but warned that pretending Maduro wasn't actually president was likely to backfire. washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/…
3/ It did. Trump put neocon imperialists in charge of Venezuela policy who tried to get the Venezuela military to push aside Maduro. When that failed, they got involved in a stranger-than-fiction coup plot that ended in an embarrassing, public failure. miamiherald.com/news/nation-wo…
It's important to understand what's happening in Venezuela right now, and how the Biden/Harris team helped put the brutal Nicolas Maduro in a strategic corner.
1/ First - let me be clear: the briefings I've received show Maduro lost the presidential election - badly.
2/ As we speak, Maduro is trying to steal the election, and supporters of democracy in Venezuela - including Maduro's allies in the Western Hemisphere - must join together to ensure he cannot overturnthe will of the people or maintain any semblance of legitimacy.
3/ fwiw Biden inherited a totally broken Venezuela policy. Trump made America look feckless by recognizing a President of Venezuela who wasn't actually President, and relying on a sanctions-only approach that entrenched Maduro and pushed 8m Venezuelans to flee to the U.S.
VP Harris was not made "border czar". That's made up.
She WAS put in charge of addressing the root causes of migration from Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala and Mexico. A targeted but important task.
1/ And I got my hands on some data about the results that you need to see.
2/ First, what did VP Harris do? She created something called The Partnership for Central America, and convinced 56 companies to invest more than $5 billion to bolster Central American economies to address the causes of economic migration.
3/ She regularly met with leaders from Mexico and the Northern Triangle countries to slow down the human trafficking cartels and invest in public safety in areas where high crime drove migrants to the U.S.
Just left Netanyahu's speech. I've spent my career fighting for a strong U.S.-Israel relationship. I want Hamas defeated.
That speech was, as I expected, a setback for both the U.S.-Israel relationship and the fight against Hamas.
The speech was more a commentary of U.S. politics, rather than a path forward for Israeli and U.S. security.
The suggestion that any American who objects to the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza is a Hamas sympathizer was way out of bounds.
The downplaying of the humanitarian crisis was astonishing to hear. The truth is that the civilian deaths in Gaza will be bulletin board recruiting material for terrorists for years. That hurts Israel and the U.S.