The more pragmatic question around the Biden video isn’t whether Trump’s action constituted a crime, but whether the Biden administration has the appetite to do anything about it. We all know the answer to that one. Trump is a master bully. He always gets away with it. He will this time, too.
Publication: The Bulwark
Why Not Pence?
Pence is a former governor and VP. He is a solid conservative, beloved by the Christian Right, anti-woke before it was super-cool,and and a hyper-loyal defender of the entire Trump agenda. In some ways, he is also an American hero. So, from the GOP’s point of view, what’s not to like? But he refused to aid and abet the coup. And in the modern GOP that remains the one irredeemable sin.
Will Critical Race Theory Sink McAuliffe?
Democrats need to tack to the middle on cultural issues.
An Ode to Joe Manchin
If Manchin hadn’t been elected, then there would be 49 Democratic senators and the party would be getting nothing. Zilch. NADA. But because of Manchin, here’s what in the infrastructure bill: Billions for trains and public transit. Replacing every lead pipe in the country. $47 billion for climate change mitigation. Electric vehicle charging stations.
The Fall of Corey Lewandowski
Many of you are waking up to the news that Trump’s SuperPac has discovered that it is shocked, shocked to discover that Trump’s uber-lackey Corey Lewandowski sexually harasses women, which, as we know, is absolutely unacceptable and intolerable behavior for anyone other than the Pussy Grabber-in-Chief himself.
A Total and Unmitigated Disaster
Bill Kristol: Serious people in government and outside government also have an obligation to begin thinking about how to mitigate the horrors that will take place within Afghanistan, and also to mitigate the damage not just to American foreign policy but to the cause of all who defend or seek freedom anywhere in the world.
The Covid Culture War Will Never End
Pandemics end; culture wars are forever.
Andrew Cuomo Normalizes Donald Trump
Governor Cuomo’s downfall exposes the illusion that we’re one election away from utopia.
CPAC Was the Real Republican Party All Along
It turns out that the conservative Star Wars bar was actually representative of the Republican base.
Damning Evidence in Impeachment Trial Clarifies Trump’s Guilt
Video and audio bring back the horror of Jan. 6 as impeachment managers show how the former president expected the violence.
History Will Crush Trump
Donald Trump’s presidency is over. Next comes judgment.
What College Football in a Pandemic Could Mean for the Election
If college football were played fully this fall as scheduled, President Trump could make the case during the election season that he deserves credit for this symbolic return of “normalcy” in American life. He can also blame the elite academics and snarky Democrats for having tried to keep Saturday afternoon college TV football away from the fans.
Is the Spell of Political Correctness Breaking?
Maybe we’re finally getting ready to concede that we can’t win a real war if we decide that every last hill of insensitivity is worth dying on.
Break Up Amazon
Richard North Patterson: Lockdown is its friend: Amazon is widely perceived as our national supply chain, and many people, stuck at home for weeks, understandably feel grateful to the company for its deliveries of vital supplies. In reality, though, the pandemic is intensifying Amazon’s stranglehold on American life.
The Pandemic and the GOP’s Science Problem
Robert North Patterson: The party’s uneasy relationship with science goes back decades.
Covid-19 Is This Generation’s Vietnam
In 1968, nearly 17,000 Americans perished in the war. It is not a coincidence that the height of the death toll in Vietnam marked the beginning of the political and social revolution that changed the face of America for a generation. A pandemic is not a war. But there are parallels between what happened in Vietnam and America’s experience of the coronavirus.
We Cannot “Reopen” America
No matter when government stay-at-home orders are revoked, the American economy will not reopen. Because the source of the economic shock is not government orders. It’s the pandemic.
Trump Could Still Win
Bill Kristol: The rally ’round the flag effect has a potency that shouldn’t be underrated. In a crisis, Americans have a pronounced tendency to rally to the incumbent president. This often happens even if the crisis is partly the president’s fault or he hasn’t handled it particularly well.
Trump’s Most Misleading and False Statements About Coronavirus
As the White House and the country grapple with what’s to come, it is important to cut through the MAGA-bullshit with a full accounting of just how unconscionably reckless Trump has been for the past seven weeks as the crisis of his presidency comes to a head. Here is a list of the most egregious false or misleading statements from the president and his top advisers about the coronavirus…
Is Bloomberg Ready for His Close-Up?
His apologies for stop-and-frisk have been accepted by some, but not others. While we can perhaps discount the parsing of his words by the apology police, there is no escaping that these apologies came too late, conveniently corresponding in time to the announcement of his candidacy.
Romney: One Man Alone
His vote did not change the outcome, but Mitt Romney reminded us on Wednesday how one man alone can dramatically change the tone and the moral character of a moment.
Mike Pompeo Is the Worst
Take Hillary Clinton’s calculation and ambition; cross it with Donald Trump’s vulgarity and dishonesty, and voila—you’ve got Mike Pompeo.
This Is How Trump Would Destroy Bernie
Mainstream Democrats find his supporters fanatical and intolerant of difference, a wrecking crew in waiting. They fear his penchant for ideological litmus tests which are demonstrably unpopular. They cringe at his embrace of left-wing authoritarians in Latin America. They worry that the GOP would bury him in a tsunami of sludge—some of it exaggerated, some not.
Does This Impeachment Trial Matter?
As a news story, the Trump impeachment trial doesn’t have much . . . news to it. The ending is all but certain. And most of what will happen between now and the verdict will be speech-making about evidence, law, and procedures—terrain already very familiar to anyone who has been paying attention over the last several months.