This profile of Fiona Hill in the New Yorker shows just how cowardly some of the former Trump officials really are:
Kelly, who had left the Administration at the end of 2018, and McMaster, who had taken a position at Stanford, had said little publicly about Trump, and they told Hill they admired her fortitude. Bolton, who was fired in September, 2019, had decided to save his revelations for a memoir. After Hill’s testimony, he asked Sarah Tinsley, a longtime aide, to relay a personal message: “You did the right thing.”
On March 1st, Hill received an e-mail from James Mattis, the former Secretary of Defense: “I’ve wanted to drop you a note paying my respects but hesitated in the immediate aftermath of your testimony to ask around for your email address. Had word leaked out that I wanted to be in touch I imagined it could/would have been misconstrued and add to the challenges you were dealing with.” He went on, “I doubt that I’ve ever felt the combination of pride, anger and contempt as I watched you testify and what followed. I was enormously proud of your demonstrated courage and poise as you stood tall; angry at those who chose to try to defame you (they failed); and contemptuous of what we witnessed in those weeks by supposed political leaders whose hear no evil, see no evil stance revealed profiles in non-courage.”
That’s very nice, I’m sure. But where were these big, strong, men when it counted? Why was it left to people like Hill, Vindeman and other unknown non-partisan government employees to step up and say what happened?
Would it have made a difference in the outcome of the impeachment? Probably not. The GOP is a zombie party and their elected officials are all the walking dead. But they would have heroes at a time when it mattered and it might have even made some of those Republicans privately acknowledge that they could not allow Trump to carry out his post-impeachment purge.
It would have been the right thing to do. Fiona Hill and the others did their duty. These important men did not.