Azerbaijan Attacks, the West Watches

Happy Tuesday! In welcoming TMD’s new editor, James Scimecca, please also offer him a word of condolence for his New York Jets’ brutal loss to the Kansas City Chiefs Sunday night. Better luck on a night when Taylor Swift isn’t in attendance, James. 

Quick Hits: Today’s Top Stories 

• The United Nations Security Council voted Monday to approve a U.S.-authored resolution to send a multinational force, led by Kenya, to Haiti. The force—while approved by the U.N. would not formally be under the body’s control—has authorization to deploy to Haiti for one year, with a review at nine months, to help Haitian leaders combat the gang violence that has destabilized the country. Kenyan Foreign Affairs Minister Alfred Mutua signaled the force could be in the country before the end of the year, though it was not clear how large the effort would be.
• A publicly available summary of a classified State Department watchdog report published late last month suggested the Biden administration’s emphasis on projecting stability during the August 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan hampered efforts at the U.S. embassy in Kabul to adequately prepare for the drawdown. “[The Office of the Inspector General] found that embassy leadership expressed apprehension about taking overt actions in preparation for an evacuation, concerned that such actions would undermine diplomatic support for the government of Afghanistan and cause panic within that government, the broader Afghan population, and Embassy Kabul,” the inspector general report says. “Because of this effort to avoid signaling a lack of support for the Afghan government, communication with embassy personnel about the timing and scope of a potential evacuation was unclear.” A full and classified version of the report was provided to Congress and the State Department. 
• The foreign ministers of all 27 European Union countries visited Kyiv Monday in a forceful show of European support for the war-torn country after the U.S. Congress failed to include additional aid for Ukraine in the last-minute deal to extend government funding. In neighboring Slovakia, meanwhile, the pro-Russian, leftwing, populist Smer party won this past Saturday’s elections. Smer party leader and former Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico campaigned on curtailing military aid to Ukraine and blocking Kyiv’s entry into NATO. The party must now form a coalition government. 
• The Supreme Court on Monday declined to take up an appeal from former Trump lawyer John Eastman, who played an instrumental role in crafting the legal theory that would have seen former Vice President Mike Pence reject electoral votes on January 6, 2021. Eastman was seeking to have the court scrub a ruling by a federal judge that forced him to release several of his otherwise privileged emails to Congress’ January 6 Select Committee, arguing that forcing their release under the so-called “crime-fraud” exception to attorney-client privilege “cast aspersions not just on Dr. Eastman but also on his former client, the former President of the United States who is a candidate for the office of President in 2024.” Justice Clarence Thomas recused himself from the court’s ruling. As is customary in such situations, he did not provide a reason for his recusal—but Eastman clerked for Thomas, and Thomas’s wife, Ginni, was in communication with Eastman in the leadup to January 6.
• Former President Donald Trump appeared in a New York City court on Monday for the first day of a sweeping civil suit. The lawsuit, brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James, alleges Trump, his two eldest sons, and executives at the Trump Organization committed financial fraud and falsified business records. The judge overseeing the case, Arthur Engoron, issued a pretrial summary judgment last week ruling Trump had committed fraud by exaggerating his net worth on financial statements. The trial will now review six additional claims—including insurance fraud and conspiracy—and determine the damages owed related to last week’s fraud ruling. The outcome of the case could affect the Trump Organization’s continued ability to do business in New York. 
• Two scientists—Katalin Karikó, who is Hungarian, and Drew Weissman, an American—were awarded the Nobel prize in medicine for their research on messenger RNA, which was a crucial component in the development of the mRNA COVID-19 vaccine. “Through their groundbreaking findings, which have fundamentally changed our understanding of how mRNA interacts with our immune system, the laureates contributed to the unprecedented rate of vaccine development during one of the greatest threats to human health in modern times,” the Nobel Assembly wrote.
• GOP Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz on Monday introduced a “motion to vacate,” a procedural mechanism which could result in Kevin McCarthy’s ouster from his post as speaker of the House. In a speech on the House floor Monday evening, Gaetz accused McCarthy of negotiating a secret deal with President Joe Biden to fund aid to Ukraine after the speaker relied on Democratic votes to pass a continuing resolution to extend government funding until mid-November. The measure, which requires a majority to pass, must be voted on within two legislative days, and could trigger a vote that would remove McCarthy as speaker. Democratic leadership has not yet signaled whether or not it would support an effort to topple McCarthy. “Bring it on,” McCarthy said following Gaetz’s motion. 

The Long Fall of Nagorno-Karabakh

An empty town square roamed by stray dogs. Chairs strewn about alongside abandoned luggage, bicycles, and strollers. Cars left deserted in the street. Such is the scene in Stepanakert—the capital of the ethnic Armenian-run region of Nagorno-Karabakh, a disputed stretch of land generally considered to be part of Azerbaijan—after Azerbaijani military forces seized control of the territory in mid-September. The city that had a population of 75,000 people emptied, essentially overnight, leaving what the first journalists to access the area this weekend described as a “ghost town with no soul.”

On Tuesday, September 19, Azerbaijan—a Muslim-majority former Soviet republic in the Caucasus—launched what appeared to be the final stroke of a more than 30-year war with Armenian-backed separatist forces in Nagorno-Karabakh, driving more than 100,000 people to flee across the border to Armenia. Azerbaijan’s attack increases the potential for escalation into a wider conflict with Armenia and spells failure for Western diplomatic efforts to prevent the use of hard power to resolve the territorial dispute, leaving Armenians who fled Nagorno-Karabakh separated from land their ancestors had called home for thousands of years. 

Worth Your Time

• In a lengthy statement to CNN, former President Donald Trump’s longest-serving chief of staff John Kelly publicly confirmed for the first time some previously reported stories about the former president and condemned his positions—and lack thereof—on everything from veterans to abortion. “What can I add that has not already been said?” Kelly told CNN, calling Trump, “a person that thinks those who defend their country in uniform, or are shot down or seriously wounded in combat, or spend years being tortured as POWs are all ‘suckers’ because ‘there is nothing in it for them.’ A person that did not want to be seen in the presence of military amputees because ‘it doesn’t look good for me.’ A person who demonstrated open contempt for a Gold Star family—for all Gold Star families—on TV during the 2016 campaign, and rants that our most precious heroes who gave their lives in America’s defense are ‘losers’ and wouldn’t visit their graves in France. A person who is not truthful regarding his position on the protection of unborn life, on women, on minorities, on evangelical Christians, on Jews, on working men and women. A person that has no idea what America stands for and has no idea what America is all about. A person who cavalierly suggests that a selfless warrior who has served his country for 40 years in peacetime and war should lose his life for treason—in expectation that someone will take action. A person who admires autocrats and murderous dictators. A person that has nothing but contempt for our democratic institutions, our Constitution, and the rule of law. There is nothing more that can be said. God help us.”
• Do you take “sides” or do you have “positions”? For the good of democracy, William Deresiewicz hopes it’s the latter. “‘Side’ carries with it an entire worldview; it tells us how to think and feel,” he writes for Persuasion. “As soon as you say ‘side,’ you’re saying there are only two: the right one and the wrong one, us versus them, good versus evil. ‘Positions’ involves a very different set of practices than ‘sides.’ ‘Sides’ goes with debates, where each party tries to ‘win,’ to show that they are ‘right,’ by bashing away at the other. At best you might decide the truth lies somewhere ‘in the middle.’ ‘Positions’ goes with conversations. You listen; you acknowledge doubt; you think out loud; you learn. You both learn. You discover things together neither of you would have come to on your own. You might meet in the middle, but you’re as likely to decide that the truth, or at least your next best approximation of the truth, lies somewhere else altogether—in a different direction, or another dimension. And you can do all this because the stakes aren’t existential anymore. Your identity—as a member of your ‘side’—is no longer riding on the outcome. You can breathe. You can think.” 

Presented Without Comment

NPR: U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar Unharmed Following Armed Carjacking About a Mile from Capitol

Also Presented Without Comment

Washington Post: Pentagon Official Charged With Participating in Dog Fighting Ring

Also Also Presented without Comment

Daily Beast: [Democratic Rep.] Jamaal Bowman Tries to Walk Back Memo Referring to ‘Nazi’ Republicans

Toeing the Company Line 

• It’s Tuesday, which means Dispatch Live (🔒) returns tonight at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT! The team will discuss the news of the week and, of course, take plenty of viewer questions! Keep an eye out for an email later today with information on how to tune in.
• In the newsletters: The Dispatch Politics crew covers the House Freedom Caucus’ budget infighting, Kevin explains (🔒) Trump’s financial fraud, and Nick unpacks (🔒) the Gaetz-McCarthy dynamic—and why it might not be so bad for McCarthy. 
• On the podcasts: For the Dispatch Podcast, Andrew interviews Jon Schweppe about the state of the pro-life movement, while Sarah and David are joined by William Baude to discuss the constitutionality of Trump’s presidential bid on Advisory Opinions. 
• On the site today: Chris breaks down why RFK Jr. running as an independent would do more damage to Trump than Biden, and Drucker offers a look into Ron DeSantis’ third quarter fundraising numbers. 

Let Us Know

Do you think the U.S. should have done more to show support for Armenia before the September 19 attack?