John Kerry Expected To Turn Up Heat
Expect a frustrated John Kerry to use the podium at an upcoming climate summit in Boston to go “hog wild” on Donald Trump after the president dismantled his major accomplishments as secretary of state, political observers say.
Kerry will speak at an International Mayors Climate Summit at Boston University in June that is expected to draw officials from Chinese cities, Boston officials said. A similar gathering between U.S. and Chinese officials had been planned for last year, but was canceled after Trump’s State Department withdrew sponsorship, Mayor Martin J. Walsh said at the time.
That conference was canceled around the same time Trump withdrew from the Paris climate accord, a worldwide agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that was a large focus of Kerry’s efforts as former President Barack Obama’s secretary of state. And with Trump also pulling out of Iran nuclear deal — another key issue for Kerry — the former secretary of state will likely lash out, politicos said.
“It’s very likely he’s going to use the spotlight to attack President Trump. He has an ax to grind with Trump and is trying to preserve his legacy as secretary of state,” said Republican strategist Ford O’Connell. “He really only has two feathers in his cap: the Iran nuclear deal and the Paris climate accord, which Trump both torpedoed.
“He has a safe space to go hog wild on the president if he chooses to,” O’Connell added.
John Kerry Won’t Rule 2020 Presidential Run In Or Out
Former Secretary of State John F. Kerry is keeping the door open to running for president in 2020, putting him on a potential collision course in a Democratic primary with fellow Bay Stater, U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
Kerry, who just landed a job as a professor at Yale, suggested in an interview with The New York Times that he’s at least open to considering a run for the White House in 2020.
But Kerry, who would turn 77 in 2020, might first have to knock out [Elizabeth] Warren, who is increasingly becoming the face of the Democratic opposition to President Trump. A Kerry-Warren matchup would be a Bay State political battle for the ages — but it wouldn’t be a close contest, said one political observer.
The prospect of two Massachusetts liberal pols fighting for the Democratic nomination would practically produce tears of joy for Republicans, said one GOP operative.
“This would be like the Super Bowl of cannibalization within the Democratic Party,” said strategist Ford O’Connell. “If somebody said the words ‘John Kerry’ to Donald Trump, he’d probably start laughing. ‘By all means, please, that would be very helpful.’ ”
Chances Slim For John Kerry 2016 White House Bid
U.S. Secretary of State John F. Kerry has left the door open to another presidential run in 2016, and while some political operatives say the defeated 2004 candidate’s political future is “zero,” others say even with Hillary Clinton as the Democratic frontrunner, it’s too volatile a field to count him out.
When asked about a 2016 White House bid yesterday on NBC’s “Meet The Press,” Kerry followed a script used by other prospects such as Mitt Romney — who has since ruled himself out — and U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
“Well, nobody says never,” Kerry said. “I mean, but I’m not — I have no concept of it.”
“I certainly think that he would be a logical person for many Democrats to support if Hillary were to stumble, or if she were to decide to not to run,” said Phillip Johnston, former chairman of the Massachusetts Democratic Party.
“In 2004, I thought he would have made a great president. And I still feel the same way, and I think a lot of Democrats do.”
But GOP strategist Ford O’Connell said Clinton has a “strange hold” on the nomination. He cited a recent survey by Foreign Policy magazine that ranked Kerry the least effective secretary of state in the past 50 years.
“I think the writing’s on the wall for John Kerry,” O’Connell said. “His political future is zero.”
Secretary In ‘No-Win Situation’ As He’s Called To Testify On Consulate Scandal
Secretary of State John F. Kerry will be on the hot seat next month — slated to be grilled by GOP congressional pit bull Darrell Issa on the alleged White House cover-up of the Benghazi terrorist attacks — in a high-profile hearing that threatens to embroil him in the growing scandal and distract him from his international agenda, critics said yesterday.
“He’s in a no-win situation,” said Erin O’Brien, a political science professor at University of Massachusetts Boston. “If he doesn’t testify, it just gives the story more legs and they say, ‘He’s in a cover-up.’ When he does arrive, it heightens the attention to the story.”
Kerry yesterday agreed to testify on June 12 after Issa’s House Oversight Committee recently released so-called “smoking gun” emails showing the White House misleading the American public on the nature of the Sept. 11, 2012, al-Qaeda-linked terrorist attacks on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, that killed four Americans, including the ambassador.
“As the head of the State Department, you might have an inkling as to where the bodies are buried,” said GOP strategist Ford O’Connell. “It will continue to grow because this is also going parallel to the VA scandal. You’re seeing a pattern by this administration of holding the ball and giving a song and dance over and over.”
A 12-member House Oversight select committee on the Benghazi scandal is being set up by U.S. Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), who will chair the hearings.
John Kerry Suggests New Direction
U.S. Secretary of State John F. Kerry’s remarks favoring U.S. interventionism in a commencement address at Yale University stand in stark contrast with the Obama administration’s gun-shy responses to strife in Syria and Ukraine — as well as his own historic opposition to U.S. actions overseas.
Instead, Kerry, alarmed by what is happening in the world, appears to be trying to carve out his own stance of America’s role in global affairs independent of his boss in the Oval Office, security and political analysts say.
Speaking from the same stage where he gave a fiery anti-Vietnam, anti-intervention speech upon graduating from Yale in 1966, Kerry told graduates yesterday that America has swung too far toward isolationism.
“We cannot allow a hangover from the excessive interventionism of the last decade to lead now to an excess of isolationism in this decade,” said Kerry, who initially voted for the Iraq War but later campaigned against it. “I can tell you for certain, most of the rest of the world doesn’t lie awake at night worrying about America’s presence. They worry what would happen in our absence.”
GOP political consultant Ford O’Connell said Kerry’s remarks represent a counterpoint to Obama’s “idealistic” foreign policy philosophy, which he said counts on greater restraint and international cooperation to tamp down hostilities.
“For once in his life, John Kerry’s being a realist. He understands the world is a difficult place,” O’Connell said. “He knows he doesn’t want America to be the world’s policeman, but he knows if America doesn’t have a foothold in international affairs, America’s going to wind up on the losing end. He recognizes that Obama’s held sway over the current generation such that it becomes a problem, into isolationism.”
John Kerry's Legacy On The Line
Russia’s brash Ukrainian incursion has put U.S. Secretary of State John F. Kerry squarely on the hot seat, and experts predict his response to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s actions, starting with a trip to Kiev tomorrow, gives him a chance to repair shaken confidence in America’s influence and define his own legacy — but could put him at odds with President Obama.
“When he tries to get tough, Obama will cut his legs out from under him, as he did in Syria,” said Victor Davis Hanson, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution. “Kerry doesn’t want to be embarrassed again like he was in Syria. And if he gives any ultimatums, he knows Obama will back off.”
Kerry will meet tomorrow with Ukraine’s new government, installed after protesters ousted the purportedly corrupt leadership. Making the rounds of network shows yesterday, he called Putin’s pretext for invading Crimea — that Russian citizens and assets were in danger — “completely trumped up” and “really 19th-century behavior in the 21st century.”
“President Putin is not operating from a place of strength here,” Kerry told NBC’s “Meet the Press” when asked whether Putin was emboldened by U.S. inaction in Syria. “He’s going to lose all of the glow that came out of the Olympics, his $60 billion extravaganza. He is not going to have a Sochi G-8. He may not even remain in the G-8 if this continues. He may find himself with asset freezes on Russian business. American business may pull back. There may be a further tumble of the ruble.”
A Gallup poll last week found 53 percent of Americans think Obama is not respected by other world leaders.
Ford O’Connell, a GOP political strategist who worked on John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign, predicted both parties would line up behind Kerry if he finds a way to pressure Putin without escalating the situation.
“The world is watching, and this administration has consistently underestimated Putin,” O’Connell said. “This will be the biggest test of Kerry’s tenure as secretary of state, and how he handles this could ultimately define his legacy.”
