 22 February 20
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22 February 20
FOCUS: William McRaven | If Good Men Like Joe Maguire Can't Speak the Truth, We Should Be Deeply Afraid
William McRaven, The Washington Post
McRaven writes: "Over the course of the past three years, I have watched good men and women, friends of mine, come and go in the Trump administration - all trying to do something - all trying to do their best."
William McRaven, The Washington Post
McRaven writes: "Over the course of the past three years, I have watched good men and women, friends of mine, come and go in the Trump administration - all trying to do something - all trying to do their best."
dmund Burke, the Irish statesman and philosopher, once said: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” Over the course of the past three years, I have watched good men and women, friends of mine, come and go in the Trump administration — all trying to do something — all trying to do their best. Jim Mattis, John Kelly, H.R. McMaster, Sue Gordon, Dan Coats and, now, Joe Maguire, who until this week was the acting director of national intelligence.
I have known Joe for more than 40 years. There is no better officer, no better man and no greater patriot. He served for 36 years as a Navy SEAL. In 2004, he was promoted to the rank of rear admiral and was chosen to command all of Naval Special Warfare, including the SEALs. Those were dark days for the SEALs. Our combat losses from wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were the highest in our history, and Joe and his wife, Kathy, attended every SEAL funeral, providing comfort and solace to the families of the fallen.
But it didn’t stop there. Not a day went by that the Maguires didn’t reach out to some Gold Star family, some wounded SEAL, some struggling warrior. Every loss was personal, every family precious. When Joe retired in 2010, he tried the corporate world. But his passion for the Special Operations soldiers was so deep that he left a lucrative job and took the position as the president of the Special Operations Warrior Foundation, a charity that pays for educating the children of fallen warriors.
In 2018, Joe was asked to be the director of the National Counterterrorism Center, a job he knew well from his last assignment as a vice admiral. He accepted, but within months of his arrival came the announcement of Coats’s departure as director of national intelligence. Maguire didn’t seek to fill the job; he was asked to do it by the president. At first he declined, suggesting that Sue Gordon, Coats’s deputy, would be better suited for the job.
But the president chose Maguire. And, like most of these good men and women, he came in with the intent to do his very best, to follow the rules, to follow the law and to follow what was morally right. Within a few weeks of taking the assignment, he found himself embroiled in the Ukraine whistleblower case. Joe told the White House that, if asked, he would testify, and he would tell the truth. He did. In short order, he earned the respect of the entire intelligence community. They knew a good man was at the helm. A man they could count on, a man who would back them, a man whose integrity was more important than his future employment.
But, of course, in this administration, good men and women don’t last long. Joe was dismissed for doing his job: overseeing the dissemination of intelligence to elected officials who needed that information to do their jobs.
As Americans, we should be frightened — deeply afraid for the future of the nation. When good men and women can’t speak the truth, when facts are inconvenient, when integrity and character no longer matter, when presidential ego and self-preservation are more important than national security — then there is nothing left to stop the triumph of evil.
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders greets supporters during a rally. (photo: Juan Figueroa/AP)
Early Results Point to Significant Lead for Sanders in Nevada
Adam Edelman, NBC News
Edelman writes: "The Nevada Democratic caucus on Saturday is too early to call after precinct locations closed their doors, according to NBC News."
Adam Edelman, NBC News
Edelman writes: "The Nevada Democratic caucus on Saturday is too early to call after precinct locations closed their doors, according to NBC News."
EXCERPT:
The Democratic National Committee also dispatched some three dozen staffers to the state to help with everything from volunteer recruitment to technical assistance, while another team in Washington will assist with data processing. And DNC Chairman Tom Perez, who stayed away from Iowa on caucus day, will be on the ground here Saturday.
Perez, however, refused earlier this week to commit to releasing the results of the caucus Saturday after the contest concluded, telling The Associated Press he prized accuracy over speed. "We're going to do our best to release results as soon as possible, but our North Star, again, is accuracy," Perez said.
Regardless of any potential complications, Saturday’s caucuses could end up being a knockout round for several candidates who have held on through the first two nominating contests in predominantly-white Iowa and New Hampshire.
Polls showed Sanders to be the front-runner heading into Saturday, with Biden, Buttigieg, Elizabeth Warren, Tom Steyer and Amy Klobuchar, all in the hunt. Mike Bloomberg, surging in national surveys before a rocky debate performance this week, is skipping the first four states and won't be on the ballot here.
The state also marks a critical test of each candidates' strength with non-white voters.
Participants in Saturday's Democratic caucuses in Nevada are much more racially diverse than voters in any presidential contest so far this year, early results from the NBC News Entrance Poll show.
Seventeen percent of Democratic caucusgoers are Latino; 10 percent are black; and 34 percent in total are people of color. That’s a huge leap in diversity from the Democratic electorates in Iowa (where people of color made up just 9 percent of voters) and New Hampshire (11 percent).
Latinos form a large part of the electorates in delegate-rich states like California and Texas, which vote on Super Tuesday on March 3. Black voters have propelled every Democratic nominee to the prize since 1992.
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