talent. that s something i worry about. please stick around. i ll get your expertise on impeachment developments in a few minutes. the latest on the impeachment and marie yovanovitch s testimony on friday. joining me abigail tracy. writing for vanity fair and kevin cirilli, for bloomberg news. kevin, what do you think is the most explosive part of the former ambassador s testimony? what do you think it fits in the entire context of impeachment? i think this could be one of the key pieces to the puzzle for republicans and democrats. there has been a consistent movement towards having articles of impeachment by thanksgiving with getting a vote on the house floor by the end of the year. and one of the key strategies shifts from the administration this week was them saying bring it on. the longer that this goes on, the longer that this is drawn out, republicans feel if they
homeland security. i worked with them when i was back in government. he was a real professional. i think he was trying to bring a law enforcement approach to his work, and also to try to professionalize the immigration policies that seem to be harsher. that seem to be more scattered and certainly were affecting morale. and i think this is a case of a seasoned law enforcement, homeland security professional. that i think was trying to do his best with a difficult hand. not only difficult in terms of the politics in the white house, but also the situation on the border. i think he did a very good job in terms of trying to manage both. and certainly the success you ve seen with mexico, doing more to try to deal with illegal immigration coming from central america. that s a success something that kevin pointsed to in his letter of resignation. as nick pointed out, he was in an acting role.
when we re talking about americans and where they re at you have seen a change in sentiment when you look at the polls and the shifts you ve seen over the last two weeks in terms of support for the impeachment inquiry and ultimately, impeach articles of impeachment against the president. kevin, your thoughts? there s been, there s been polls that, i think, there s another poll out this week that showed that there is somewhat slightly more than half of the country supports the impeachment inquiry. but in terms of the president being at risk of losing republican support, still not there. i mean of all the developments on foreign policy this week as it relates to syria, as it relates to saudi arabia, and the kurds, there has been, there was swift republican push-back from senate majority leader mitch mcconnell. liz cheney, none of them saying that s going to change their calculation with regards to the impeachment. can i just ask you guys this it was a completely different note. b
hole in the system because kevin is leaving. kevin is a great professional. i would prefer to have him in rather than out. i think we now need to have leadership there to bring some political stability to a department that has a very clear and important national security role. nick, you concur? we sometimes forget as juan pointed out, the homeland security department has an array of missions and a number of challenges. immigration and border security is eenl one of those. what made kevin so strong, he had experience across those areas and had been involved in work on counterterrorism and dealing with other kinds of national security challenges. i worry that the next homeland security secretary or acting secretary will come in with a very single-minded focus on the border. and of course that s important, it s not the only thing that dhs needs to do to protect america. juan is right, we re seeing someone with a lot of capability walk out the door. this administration hasn t found it
within the last several weeks acting secretary mcaleenan has given interviews in which he has in some ways tried to separate himself from some of the most excessive aspects of the immigration policy. he clearly viewed himself as someone who was trying to blunt the rougher edges of the policy and take a law enforcement approach, but not one viewed as punishing or penalizing innocent or vulnerable populations of migrants. i m not surprised that kevin is departing government service, i think he tried to do the best co-to take a law enforcement approach without going overboard with the president s immigration agenda. another thing to talk about, juan, you have the washington post reporting that mcaleenan was frustrated and isolated. even as he delivered what the president wants at the border. is this another case of paying a price for just trying to be something of a voice of reason? it may be. as nick said, kevin was a long-time professional within the ranks of the department of