Well, I mean, again, it's it is it's war and the enemy gets a vote

Derek Cholay is not a household name

so

You know, we've been very clear

To them that you know our deterrence remains strong

He has a title that is unusual even to those familiar with the lingo of the DC foreign policy bureaucracy

The counselor of the department. Yeah, counselor of the state department. It is a title that can

Perhaps seen made up I think my family my family thought it was completely made up

But you can get a sense of his influence by seeing where he sits on the seventh floor at state

You walk through the treaty room and into the wood paneled offices of the secretaries in her sanctum

There's Anthony Blinken's office which is decorated with modern art on loan from the Smithsonian

Then there's Blinken's chief of staff and then there's Derek's office

So you're right there

You know shouting distance from secretary Blinken. Yes

We're not a shouting operation

He is essentially the secretary of states closest advisor

He's been working in foreign policy jobs in and out of the government ever since he was a college intern at state back in

1992

The year after the Soviet Union dissolved and he's been at the center of all of the Biden administration's debates about the crisis

in Ukraine

He has strong feelings about what's going on on his desk. He has a mug. It reads

Putin

...