Politics & National Security

Amid the hubbub of L’Affaire Ukrainienne, you could be forgiven for overlooking another story that has emerged out of Congress over the past week. It’s a grubby, unpleasant story—so much so that it feels ugly to draw attention to it. But the times are ugly, after all, and the story is a concerning harbinger of what might be to come in the lead-up to 2020.

On Tuesday, CNN and the New York Times hosted the fourth debate of the 2020 Democratic primary campaign, moderated by Anderson Cooper, Erin Burnett and Mark Lacey. We’ve combed through the transcript from the debate to present the national security-related exchanges. These excerpts are organized both thematically and chronologically.

A complete transcript of the debate can be found through the Washington Post.

Impeachment

In July 2017, we began an ongoing investigation of the public’s confidence in national security matters. Since October of that year, we have been tracking public confidence in the work of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian election interference in 2016 and his review of efforts to obstruct inquiries into that interference.

From “forever wars” to cyber operations, today’s national security challenges are proving vexingly complex for both Democrats and Republicans. Boosting budgets and restructuring security agencies has not helped surmount the challenges. But there’s one thing that could: improving gender diversity in leadership teams.