Andrew Meier

Biographer and Journalist. New Book: MORGENTHAU: Power, Privilege & The Rise of An American Dynasty (Random House)

[Andrew Meier @AndrewMeier1]

Oct 11, at long last, MORGENTHAU arrives….

It's been a journey, so pls. allow me to explain where it began… and attempt (apologies in advance) my first🧵

[Omid Memarian @Omid_M]

This video feels like a love letter to Tehran, to everything it holds: the beauty and the chaos, the warmth and the weight, the memories that don’t leave you even when you’re far away. It captures a city that lives inside you, even as everything outside feels uncertain: war, ceasefire, silence, disconnection. With the internet cut off for weeks, with difficulties of reaching out to reach family & friends, this has become a kind of a window to home. When you can’t call home, you hold onto whatever reminds you of it.

[Ellen Barry @EllenBarryNYT]

“Everyone wants to leave, but most don’t have that option. No one wants to tie their future to this country. Living here is difficult, expensive, and bleak.”

@CatherineBelton

https://t.co/F3nn9eOhPj

[Christopher Hooks @cd_hooks]

tip for younger reporters: point your camera at the thing that’s happening

[Lloyd Blankfein @lloydblankfein]

Was at the WH Correspondents dinner last night, a rare DC trip for me without a subpoena. On the positive side—was exciting, no one was killed, and ended early. I noted a new litmus for status among the gov’t elite—whether you were whisked away by secret service, or left to fend.

[Edward Luce @EdwardGLuce]

Trump is going to make himself a hero out of this, and my profession is doing its best to tee it up for him. Easiest golf shot ever.

[Sebastian Smith @SebastianAFP]

Trump says “let the show go on.” We are in a really, really surreal timeline

[Sebastian Smith @SebastianAFP]

Worth remembering, the WHCA dinner takes place at the same hotel where President Reagan was shot and very nearly killed.

[David French @DavidAFrench]

One of the few assertions that's basically beyond debate.

[Andrew Meier @AndrewMeier1]

Read it (again): Kash Patel’s Girlfriend Seeks Fame and Fortune, Escorted by an F.B.I. SWAT Team https://t.co/3Xm6QtwP7w via @NYTimes

[Andrew Meier @AndrewMeier1]

https://t.co/QlDg6EyXVl

[Mike Pompeo @mikepompeo]

This about as un-American as you can get.

Conflating legitimate concerns over radicalization with a wholesale rejection of one religious group is ignorant and goes against our founding principles.

[Nazanin Boniadi @NazaninBoniadi]

This only alienates the Iranian people who have until now been supportive of targeted intervention to bring down the regime and allow them to self-determine

It also plays into the regime’s narrative that its fall will destroy Iran.

Iran’s territorial integrity is nonnegotiable.

[Arkady Ostrovsky @ArkadyOstrovsky]

The Iran war puts Vladimir Putin in a tough spot (from @TheEconomist) https://t.co/8K9bsGHTIg

[Anne Barnard @ABarnardNYC]

My God - in Tehran there are 2-3-ft deep, open gutters that carry water down the slope from north to south. If burning oil is flowing down them it could spread quite far.

[Omid Memarian @Omid_M]

This is so sick. This is not about going after the regime. It’s going against the people of Iran. So pathetic. Destroying Iran’s infrastructure that belongs to the nation, to the people of Iran, not the regime, reveals who is running the war and why. IRAN is the target. IRAN!

[Omid Memarian @Omid_M]

A Dynastic Gamble for Iran’s Regime
It remains unclear what mechanism led to the selection of Mojtaba Khamenei as the successor to his father, who was killed last Saturday in Iran along with several members of his family, and how his name ultimately emerged as the next leader of the Islamic Republic. His tenure may prove short, but in a system where loyalty to the ruling order, personal proximity to Ali Khamenei, and adherence to the state’s ideology are the principal criteria for advancement, many inside Iran are not surprised that Mojtaba Khamenei’s name has emerged from the Assembly of Experts’ vote.

From what I've been hearing, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which is currently playing a central role in managing the war and has, over the past two decades, consolidated sweeping influence over Iran’s economy, politics, foreign policy, and social sphere, played a decisive role in this selection. After all, many members of the Assembly of Experts are both Khamenei loyalists and were selected after a rigorous process vetted by the IRGC's intel.

Over the years, many prominent religious and political figures had strongly opposed the prospect of hereditary leadership in the Islamic Republic. They saw this as repeating the history and the traditions of monarchy in Iran, which they had already opposed and rejected.

In a moment of existential crisis, when the government is fighting for survival and sees its future as uncertain, the IRGC may decide to suppress dissent through its iron fist repression machinery. Even so, the decision is likely to deepen internal divisions within the ruling establishment.

After the death of Ruhollah Khomeini in 1989, Ali Khamenei, then serving as president, became the new supreme leader. At the time, he had a relatively modest resume and did not meet the religious rank of "marja", which had been considered a requirement for the position. Yet he was among the closest figures to the late leader and was seen as deeply loyal to the ideology and ideals of the Islamic Republic. Mojtaba Khamenei shares many of those same characteristics with his father. But his selection would also effectively formalize a hereditary dimension to leadership in the Islamic Republic.

It is difficult to know whether the current system has days or months left. But for many Iranians, Mojtaba Khamenei’s selection would be very bad news, and very good news for the regime’s most hardline supporters and for the security apparatus that sustains the Islamic Republic’s machinery of repression. Mojtaba will take over the country amid the regime's most challenging crisis since its inception. He might have some friends within the regime, but he will have many enemies when the majority of the country has rejected the current system through years of protests.

[Ben Smith @semaforben]

Ugh editors

[Omid Memarian @Omid_M]

This doesn’t seem like a targeted attack in Tehran. People want the regime to go. True. This looks like a different plan.

[Michael Weiss @michaeldweiss]

Days like today I especially hope whoever said, “Twitter is where people who don’t read books lecture people who write them,” is living his or her best life somewhere sunny and mild, where the cocktails are inexpensive but wonderful.

[Anton Troianovski @antontroian]

Trump called Voice of America "a total, leftwing disaster."

As he tries to convince the Iranian people to "take over your government," can it help him get his message out? https://t.co/zIpP3HBLyE