PositiveThe Washington PostHere, Right Matters is not an especially riveting narrative. Vindman moves too quickly through some of the most intriguing parts of his biography and the ways in which service shaped his character. The early chapters focus too much on traditional military stories along with italicized axioms, often drained of the personal elements that made him so compelling when he appeared on the public stage ... There are, however, notable contributions to understanding the scandal. More than most other works, Vindman’s book explains with clarity how far the president departed from U.S. policies toward Russia, including his own administration’s. Vindman’s regional knowledge allows him to unpack the reasons that so many Democrats thought Trump’s phone conversation should be the basis of the nation’s third presidential impeachment. In meticulous fashion, he details the stunning number of high-ranking officials—such as Gordon Sondland, U.S. ambassador to the European Union—who were in on the game.
Edward-Isaac Dovere
PositiveThe Washington PostThough many of the high points will be familiar to anyone who follows politics, the work offers an engaging fly-on-the-wall narrative of the Democrats who attempted to replace President Donald Trump ... a riveting account of how the unlikeliest candidate, Joe Biden, pulled off an upset against a group of talented rivals in the primaries and then Trump in the November election ... Certain scenes jump off the page ...Readers will wish that Dovere hadn’t moved so quickly away from the grass roots that coalesced to stop the Trump juggernaut ... The biggest missing element is Trump himself. To be sure, the former president appears throughout the pages. But not nearly enough ... Too often, Dovere downplays the way that the coronavirus devastated not just traditional campaign tactics but all of our lives.
