THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Former U.S. State Department spokesman James Rubin testified Monday as the first defense witness for Hashim Thaçi, the former president of Kosovo, who is accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity allegedly committed during his country's 1998-99 war for independence from Serbia.
Thaçi is on trial at the Kosovo Specialist Chambers court in The Hague with three other former leaders of the Kosovo Liberation Army guerrilla group that fought Serb forces in the war. They are widely regarded as national heroes in their homeland.
Rubin is a former assistant secretary of state for public affairs and chief spokesperson for Madeleine Albright when she was secretary of state in the Clinton administration. He was with Albright at peace talks in France in 1999 and later was a special negotiator at talks to demobilize the Kosovo Liberation Army, also known as the KLA. He described Thaçi as a political “frontman” without real power.
“It was clear to me that he was not in charge,” Rubin told the court. "He didn’t have the knowledge, the capabilities or the authority to make decisions in any way, shape or form.”
Thaçi rose to political power after the war but resigned as president to defend himself against charges he faces along with Kadri Veseli, Rexhep Selimi and Jakup Krasniqi, including murder, persecution, torture and enforced disappearances.
Under cross-examination by Krasniqi's lawyer, Venkateswari Alagendra, Rubin agreed with Alagendra's assessment that Krasniqi was a “supporting voice of moderation who was trying to help his party and those involved, with the help of the United States, to end the conflict.”
The trial opened April 3, 2023, with Thaçi — known as “The Snake” during the war — telling judges he was innocent. Prosecutors wrapped up their case after calling 125 witnesses.
Prosecution lawyers argued at the trial's opening that they were not putting on trial either the Kosovo Liberation Army or the war for independence.
“These four accused are on trial in respect of their personal responsibility for crimes committed against persons who they viewed as opponents, a majority of whom were in fact their fellow Kosovo Albanians,” prosecution lawyer Clare Lawson told judges.
Most of the 13,000 people who died in the war were ethnic Albanians. The fighting was ended by a 78-day campaign of NATO airstrikes against Serbian forces.
Kosovo declared its independence from Serbia in 2008, a move recognized by the United States and many other Western nations, but not by the authorities in Belgrade.
The court in The Hague and a linked prosecutor’s office were created after a 2011 report by the Council of Europe, a human rights body, that included allegations that KLA fighters trafficked human organs taken from prisoners and killed Serbs and fellow ethnic Albanians. Thaçi and his fellow defendants are not charged with organ harvesting.
Monday's hearing unfolded against a backdrop of political stalemate in Kosovo seven months after elections. The U.S., a key supporter of Kosovo, on Friday suspended talks with the country, blaming its caretaker government for rising tensions and instability in the small Balkan country and the region.
Associated Press writer Llazar Semini in Tirana, Albania, contributed to this report.
FILE - Former Kosovo president Hashim Thaci, left, appears before the Kosovo Tribunal in the Hague, on April 3, 2023. (Koen van Weel/Pool via AP, File)
NEW YORK (AP) — Almost two weeks after Republicans lost badly in elections in Georgia, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Virginia, many GOP leaders insist there is no problem with the party's policies, its message or President Donald Trump's leadership.
Trump says Democrats and the media are misleading voters who are concerned about high costs and the economy. Republican officials aiming to avoid another defeat in next fall's midterms are encouraging candidates to embrace the president fully and talk more about his accomplishments.
Those are the major takeaways from a series of private conversations, briefings and official talking points involving major Republican decision-makers across Washington, including inside the White House, after their party's losses Nov. 4. Their assessment highlights the extent to which the fate of the Republican Party is tied to Trump, a term-limited president who insists the economy under his watch has never been stronger.
That's even as an increasing number of voters report a different reality in their lives.
But with few exceptions, the Trump lieutenants who lead the GOP’s political strategy have no desire to challenge his wishes or beliefs.
“Republicans are entering next year more unified behind President Trump than ever before,” Republican National Committee spokesperson Kiersten Pels said. “The party is fully aligned behind his America First agenda and the results he’s delivering for the American people. President Trump’s policies are popular, he drives turnout, and standing with him is the strongest path to victory.”
Trump's approval is similar to former Presidents Barack Obama, a Democrat, and George W. Bush, a Republican, at the same point in their terms, however. Their parties had major losses in midterm elections.
Since the election, the White House has quietly decided to shift its message to focus more on affordability.
Much of the first year of Trump’s second term has been dominated by his trade wars, his crackdown on illegal immigration, his decision to send National Guard troops into American cities and the longest government shutdown in U.S. history.
Trump has talked more about affordability in the days since Election Day. On Friday, he slashed tariffs on beef and other commodities that consumers say cost too much. But Trump's primary message is that the economy is better and consumer prices lower than as reported by the media. It’s much the same message that Democratic President Joe Biden and his allies spent years pushing, with little success.
“We have a great economy and the prices are coming down,” Trump told reporters Sunday night before boarding Air Force One on his way back to the White House from his Florida resort.
He blamed Democrats for an economy he described as having “the highest inflation in the history of our country. I have it down now to a normal level and it’s going down further.”
In a social media post Friday, Trump said of the GOP: “We are the Party of Affordability!”
He also has claimed the cost of a Thanksgiving dinner this year will be down 25%, but that number is off. Grocery prices are 2.7% higher than they were in 2024.
Economic worries were the dominant concern for voters in this month's elections, according to the AP Voter Poll.
Republican strategist Doug Heye said Trump’s approach is not necessarily helpful for the Republican Party or its candidates, who already face a difficult political environment in 2026 when voters will decide the balance of power in Congress. Historically, the party occupying the White House has significant losses in nonpresidential elections.
“Republicans need to relay to voters that they understand what they’re going through and that they’re trying to fix it,” Heye said. “That can be hard to do when the president takes a nonmetaphorical wrecking ball to portions of the White House, which distract so much of Washington and the media.”
“Candidates cannot afford to be distracted,” Heye added. “As we saw in the recent elections, especially in Virginia, if you’re not talking about what voters are talking about, they will tune you out.”
The reality outside Washington suggests that not every Republican candidate shares Trump's outlook.
New York Rep. Elise Stefanik, a House Republican leader who began a campaign for governor last week, said there is no question about the top issue for her constituents: affordability. She also played down her party's focus on conservative cultural priorities, including transgender athletes, which was a top Republican focus in the recent Virginia governor’s race.
“Certainly I support women and girls sports and protecting them, but as you see in all of our messaging, we’re focused on the top issues, which every conversation with voters is about the high taxes and spending, the unaffordability,” Stefanik told The Associated Press.
Stefanik offered a nuanced perspective on Trump’s leadership.
She was unwilling to criticize any of the president’s major policies or governing decisions. But Stefanik, who has fought for Trump's agenda as a GOP leader in Congress, shifted the focus to New York's Democratic governor when asked about the strength of the Republican Party's support for the president.
“My sense is our party is fully united behind firing Kathy Hochul,” Stefanik said before highlighting Trump's support from New York voters in recent elections.
While Stefanik said it is important for the governor to have “an effective working relationship” with Trump, she declined to say whether she would support a hypothetical Trump move to send the National Guard to New York City, as he has threatened. “It wouldn’t need to happen if there was a Republican governor," she said.
Last year, Stefanik called for the National Guard to help control pro-Palestinian protests on Columbia University.
The Republican National Committee, which serves as the political arm of Trump's White House, issued a series of talking points that shrug off the recent election losses as a byproduct of Democratic voter advantage in the states where the top races played out.
The talking points, obtained by The Associated Press, ignore Republican losses in Georgia and Pennsylvania. They also overstate Trump's political strength, claiming that he is more popular than Obama and Bush were at the same time in their tenures.
The claim has been echoed across conservative media in recent days.
An AP polling analysis finds that Trump’s approval is not higher than Obama’s or of Bush at a similar point in their second terms.
Trump's approval, at 36% in a November poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research is slightly higher than it was at this point in his first term. But both Obama and Bush has approval ratings were in the low 40s at this point in their second terms, according to Gallup polling, which is similar to where Trump landed in Gallup’s latest approval poll in October.
For Obama and Bush, their parties had big losses in the midterm elections that followed.
The Republican messaging crafted by Trump's team, however, doubles down on supporting the president and his policies.
The recent elections “were not a referendum on President Trump, Republicans in Congress, or the MAGA Agenda,” the RNC talking points state. To win in 2026, “Make America Great Again” voters "will need to show up at the ballot box; President Trump and Republicans are going to make that happen.”
Associated Press writers Chris Megerian in West Palm Beach, Florida, and Amelia Thomson DeVeaux and Will Weissert in Washington contributed to this report.
President Donald Trump speaks to reporters before boarding Air Force One at Palm Beach International Airport in West Palm Beach Fla., on his way back to the White House, Sunday, Nov. 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
President Donald Trump speaks to reporters before boarding Air Force One at Palm Beach International Airport in West Palm Beach Fla., on his way back to the White House, Sunday, Nov. 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
FILE - Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-NY., speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference, CPAC, at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center, Feb. 22, 2025, in Oxon Hill, Md. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)
President Donald Trump walks out to board Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House, Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
FILE - Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., speaks on Capitol Hill, Jan. 21, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr., File)
A sign is seen outside the Oval Office before President Donald Trump walks out to board Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House, Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
