Member Login

Category: COLUMNS FROM OUR GUESTS

Jennifer Rubin: Republicans are in retreat — and look wimpy

Republicans must dimly understand how badly out of step with the country they are. Reports suggest that even the White House is now considering changing the names of military bases honoring Confederate figures. President Trump signed a toothless executive order Tuesday in a weak attempt to convey some concern about the deaths of African Americans […]

Charlie Pierce: The Word ‘Reform’ Has Lost All Credibility When It Comes to Policing

Apparently, we’re going to squabble over the semantic difference between “defunding” the police and “dismantling” a renegade police force, as has happened in Minneapolis in the aftermath of the killing of George Floyd. The White House is going all-in, beating the word “defunding” into a weapon in its upcoming retrograde and Nixonian “law ’n order” […]

Eric Boehlert: Why New York Times and Facebook employees are rebelling

Even during a pandemic that has unleashed historic unemployment and at a time when media jobs are vanishing at a stunning rate, some brave employees at Facebook and New York Times have had enough, and risked their careers by calling out their employers over the way they constantly bow down to authoritarian Republican power in […]

The Rude Pundit: The Terrorist Cops of America

Black and brown and LGBTQ and so many other people know this already: What we call “policing” in too many places in the United States might more properly be called “government-sponsored terrorism.” For what else is the purpose of the way in which police around the country have responded to anti-racism and anti-police violence protesters […]

Charlie Pierce: The President* Is Right: He Has Nothing New to Say

The more leaks there are from Monday’s disastrous teleconference between El Caudillo del Mar-a-Lago and the nation’s governors, the more you realize exactly what a perilous moment this is in our history. As background, however, we should first look at another report that emerged prior to when everything hit the fan in Lafayette Park. Read […]

Elie Mystal: People Can Only Bear So Much Injustice Before Lashing Out

I would never throw a rock at the police. I would never throw a brick through the window of a big-box store. I would never set fire to an office building. But I want to. I understand why some people do. I know I am supposed to counsel nonviolence. I’m a 42-year-old man with a […]

Eric Boehlert: America has a Mark Zuckerberg problem

If Trump has a chance of being re-elected this year, that chance runs right through Facebook and its compliant CEO, Mark Zuckerberg. He’s already given the Trump campaign a green light to lie incessantly on social media by announcing Facebook would not police false political content, and that candidates could post whatever misinformation they wanted. […]

The Rude Pundit: The President Is the Enemy

May 4 was the 50th anniversary of the Kent State Massacre, where the National Guard opened fire on Vietnam War protesters on the campus of Kent State University, killing 4 people. The authorities shooting unarmed protesting Americans was a thing that happened with ludicrous regularity in the 1960s and early 1970s. Really, for most of […]

Charlie Pierce: For Republicans, It’s Just Pure Base Politics Now

The news from the Laboratories of Democracy never sleeps, and that is especially true in the bubbling beakers and flasks of the great state of Oklahoma, which, apparently, has had enough of messing around with exceptions to the rules. Read the rest of Charlie Pierce’s piece at Esquire.

Jon Sinton: A Turning Point: Part I, Where We Are

What has gone wrong with our country since its peak, which, one might argue, was the fifty-year period following the second world war? After putting men on the moon, we felt as though the government, comprised of a lot of our neighbors and friends with “the right stuff,” could do anything. It’s hard not to […]

Charlie Pierce: Republicans Have Turned to Full-On Voter Intimidation in 2020

Again, I say to my friends at The Lincoln Project, and to the Never Trump community in general: put some money and energy behind campaigns against the policies that made the current president* not just possible, but inevitable. Help the country out that way, so that debacles like the current one are less likely to […]

Natasha Bertrand: Trump exults in his Mueller revenge play

“Hope you had fun investigating me,” reads a meme that has been reposted by President Donald Trump, his family and his allies several times over the last week on social media. “Now it’s my turn.” More than one year after the Russia investigation ended and six months before he faces re-election, Trump is getting his […]

Bob Cesca: Dr. Trump’s crazypants new plan… A fast reopen, lots more death and he wins anyway

Every ridiculous action taken by Donald Trump makes a little more sense when viewed through the prism of re-election. Every terrible decision, every whiny outburst, every childish tweet is issued with the goal of helping Trump get re-elected, and of course re-election explains his horrifyingly incompetent response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Rather than safely and sanely handling […]

Eric Boehlert: Access journalism is killing us

Finally emerging from his pandemic-era Fox News bunker, Trump sat for an interview with ABC News this week. For weeks as the U.S. death toll skyrocketed and tens of millions of people lost their jobs, Trump had agreed only to answer pleasing, one-on-one questions from Fox News. He did his best to create an alternate […]

The Rude Pundit: Things to Keep in Mind About the Tara Reade Allegations

As Democrats grapple with how to handle the accusation by former staff member Tara Reade that Joe Biden sexually assaulted her in a hallway in the Senate office building in 1993, let’s remember that as much as we want it to be about finding out the truth, it’s never just that. And let’s remember that […]

Matthew Miller: It’s not just the bleach. Trump is a catalog of bad ideas that tax resources

President Trump’s open-mic riff suggesting government health experts explore injecting patients with bleach or household disinfectants to fight covid-19 made for easy parody. “And then I see the disinfectant, that knocks it out in a minute, one minute,” he said at Thursday night’s televised news briefing. “Is there a way we can do something like that, by injection, […]

Bob Cesca: Stay home or reopen? We can avoid Trump’s fake choice with a big, bold stimulus

One of the most insane bits of propaganda being injected into the dual coronavirus and economic catastrophes of the moment is the Trump-marketed gibberish about how “the cure can’t be worse than the problem.” It’s an infuriatingly simplistic zinger, condensing myriad complexities into a facile bumper-sticker slogan that will ultimately result in more dead Americans.  […]

The Rude Pundit: Andrew Cuomo Fu**s Mitch McConnell’s Sh** Up

It’s something that doesn’t get said much, but all those red states, all those states with their MAGA citizens looking down at the northeastern libtards who want immigrants but not guns, whose schools teach science and actual history, who elect Democrats, fer chrissakes, yeah, those states pretty much fucking stay in existence because of the […]

The Rude Pundit: Andrew Cuomo Finally Gets Rid of His Last F***

(Note: Before I get all slobbery on Andrew Cuomo’s knob, lemme preface this by saying I agree with all the things you dislike about him. I’ve got lots of grievances, too, since I fuckin’ work for the state of New York. This ain’t about any of that. Are we good? Yeah, shut up. I don’t […]

The Rude Pundit: Trump Stupidly Self-Owns on Pandemic Deaths

Ever since the first death from COVID-19, President Donald Trump has brayed like a howler monkey getting a tree branch stuck up its ass about how allegedly terrible President Obama handled the H1N1 outbreak in 2009-10. On a daily basis, we have heard about how the incompetent fuck-ups in the Obama administration personally went out […]

The Rude Pundit: Fu** Jared Kushner

There’s a certain kind of Ivy League college graduate who is just a total wad of fuck. Usually, they come from inherited wealth, are legacy admissions, and barely had to do any work the entire time they were in school because they have never had to any kind of work. I’ve had my run-ins with […]

The Rude Pundit: Trump Doesn’t Care About What You Have to Lose

It would have been so easy, so unbelievably easy, for Donald Trump to have been the hero when it came to coronavirus. He had his chance, his bullhorn on the wreckage, his “tear down this wall.” And it would have been with absolutely minimal effort. With a wave of his hand, the signing of a […]

Reed Galen: Considering business or death, Trump chooses inhumanity

The COVID-19 crisis has had massive effects on our country: A massive economic shock precipitated by a rampaging pandemic has now pushed some of our political leaders — starting with President Donald Trump, into unthinkable places — even for him. Despite intelligence community warnings as early as January that the coronavirus was exploding in the Wuhan province of China, […]

Bob Cesca: Trump’s “wartime president” shtick is ghastly — and it could totally work

Like every other petty con man, from back-alley hustlers to Wall Street fraudsters, Donald Trump is a thief and he’ll always be a thief. Now the president is clearly stealing from the George W. Bush playbook in one particularly awful way. Specifically, Trump appears to be desperately envious of Bush’s approval polls after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, […]

Charlie Pierce: No Thinking Person Would Vote to Give Steven Mnuchin a Blank Check

As the ‘rasslin’ match in the Senate goes on, return with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear—namely, 2017—when we all could hang out together and would socially distance ourselves only for petty personal reasons, and Steve Mnuchin was still merely the nominee for Secretary of the Treasury. It was clear throughout his confirmation […]

Eric Boehlert: We’re still waiting for “Trump Lies About Pandemic” headlines

Stay healthy. Be kind. Trump’s lying about the global pandemic continues nonstop. At each White House daily briefing, he unfurls a multitude of falsehoods about the virus, the government’s response, and his own previous comments on the crisis. We’ve never seen anything like this before from an American president during a time of national peril. […]

The Rude Pundit: Why It Matters That Trump Is Calling COVID-19 “the Chinese Virus”

“Zika” and “West Nile virus” were named before 1950, when things were even more racist-y than they are now. “Ebola” got its name because scientists, including ones from the Centers for Disease Control, decided to name it for a river near the village in the Democratic Republic of Congo (then Zaire) where the first case was discovered. […]

Eric Boehlert: To protect America, the press needs to unplug Trump’s pandemic misinformation

As the coronavirus crisis becomes increasingly dire, news organization have to choose between covering the truth, and covering Trump. Today, every time Trump addresses the novel virus and America’s unfolding pandemic, he makes things worse with his steady stream of reckless contradictions, lies, and misinformation. A proud agent of chaos, Trump is the worst possible leader […]

The Rude Pundit: Trump Vs. the Virus Is Really Trump Vs. Us

I’ve been trying for the last couple of days to wrap my head around, well, fucking everything. Yes, there are the ways the coronavirus pandemic affects me personally and professionally (I’m not just a tenured liberal professor; I’m the tenured liberal chair of a whole goddamn department).  But I’ve been trying to get used to […]

Bob Cesca: The presidency is an actual job… This idiot can’t do it

Steven Wright, the great surrealist comedian, once inadvertently described how the last several weeks, if not the last three years, have felt to so many of us.  On his 1985 “I Have a Pony” concert album, Wright joked about the sensation of leaning too far back in his chair, but catching himself at the last second […]

Charlie Pierce: Who the Hell Wants Another Four Years of This?

As the weekend rolled on, and as the president*’s deranged performance at the Centers for Disease Control became an iconic moment in executive incompetence, I remembered reading something in The New York Times during the Obama Administration about a guy who went all over the world, and deep into the boondocks, to help various countries fight malaria. […]

Eric Boehlert: Memo to media… Maybe voters don’t care about Biden “gaffes”

As Joe Biden basked in the glow of his stunning Super Tuesday primary victories, which established him as the clear front-runner for the Democratic nomination, he took the stage to address supporters in Los Angeles. At one point amidst the celebration, he turned around and appeared to confuse his wife, Jill, and his wife’s sister, […]

Eric Boehlert: The press crucified Obama for Ebola, gives Trump a pass for coronavirus

The coronavirus health crisis has suddenly caught the media’s full attention. Monday’s stock market crash, with the Dow Jones industrial average plunging 1,000 points, was fueled by investor fear surrounding the possible pandemic, as infections spread globally. This, while a Harvard University epidemiologist this week predicted the coronavirus “will ultimately not be containable.” Trump’s slow-motion response to […]

The Rude Pundit: The Other Batshit Appearance Trump Made This Week

Yes, President Donald Trump acted more like a cartoon bear that had been hit in the head with a frying pan than the Leader of the Semi-Free World at his coronavirus press conference on Wednesday. But it was just as bad at another event he held the next day. It was a meeting with African American “leaders” […]

Bob Cesca: Can Bernie win? Absolutely — and I don’t even support him

I’m definitely going to catch hell in buckets on social media, but here it is: Bernie Sanders can absolutely defeat Donald Trump in November. I might be the only non-Bernie supporter saying it, but there it is.  There’s no doubt Bernie is now the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination, and poll averages are showing additional […]

Eric Boehlert: Wait, the press actually thinks Barr’s going to stand up to Trump?

Stressing that a “standoff” between Trump and Attorney General Bill Barr had “intensified” in recent days, the Beltway press spent this week whipping itself into a mini-frenzy, suggesting some sort of dramatic showdown was looming on the horizon. This is the kind of purposefully naïve news coverage that helps normalize Trump’s dangerous behavior. It also […]

The Rude Pundit: Warren Finally Puts Back on Her Ass-Kicking Boots

Last night, at the Democratic debate in Las Vegas, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren finally put on the combat boots that are still speckled with the blood of banking lobbyists and got back to the business of stomping ultra-rich asses. Warren had been trying to be above the fray at the debates, largely, until she was put on a stage […]

Charlie Pierce: So Trump Basically Confessed to the Ukraine Charges

Not for nothing, America, but basically, he copped to it. From CNN: The reversal came Thursday in a podcast interview Trump did with journalist Geraldo Rivera, who asked, “Was it strange to send Rudy Giuliani to Ukraine, your personal lawyer? Are you sorry you did that?” Trump responded, “No, not at all,” and praised Giuliani’s role as a […]

The Rude Pundit: Rush Limbaugh Is Dying For His Own Sins

Rush Limbaugh, the still-alive host of Creepy the Aging Clown’s Masturbatorium of Hate and Homophobia,  believes that Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg has made headway in the 2020 race because of him. See, about a year ago, Limbaugh said, “Keep a sharp eye out for Mayor Pete. Keep an eye on this guy. He is gonna […]

Harry Litman: This is one of the most odious achievements of Trump’s presidency

The withdrawal of all four career prosecutors handling the case against Roger Stone, in the wake of the Justice Department’s sentencing shift, underscores that Attorney General William P. Barr’s department has effectively gone rogue. Prosecutors Aaron Zelinsky, Adam Jed and Michael Marando all sought permission Tuesday to leave the case. A fourth, Jonathan Kravis, has […]

Bob Cesca: How should Democrats fight back against Trump’s billion-dollar “Death Star”?

They’re calling it the “Death Star.” While supporters of the various Democratic candidates for president pummel each other online, Grand Moff Brad Parscale, Donald Trump’s campaign manager, is deploying this appropriately nicknamed $1 billion disinformation machine with the real potential to obliterate even the most perfect Democratic ticket this fall. For starters.  Among other things, this raises an extraordinarily important […]

The Rude Pundit: Mitt Romney Is F***ed and So Are the Rest of Us

Look, there are a whole truckload of reasons to despise current Utah Senator, former Republican presidential nominee, and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney. Just pick. Maybe you think his refusal in 2012 to embrace the health care plan that he himself signed off on in Massachusetts was the sign of a weak, weak candidate. Maybe […]

Eric Boehlert: Media touts McConnell’s impeachment cover-up as being super savvy

Orchestrating a show trial unlike any other in American political history, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is scrambling to protect Donald Trump and the rest of the GOP from a damaging proceeding this week. Not only intent on shutting down meaningful debate by cutting off access to evidence and witnesses, the Republican Party has […]

Harry Litman: Dershowitz may have argued himself out of relevance

In his star turn in the Senate well Monday, Harvard Law professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz at first delivered an account of executive power that, while extreme and wrongheaded, seduced a cadre of Senate Republicans. Then Wednesday night he drove the car over the cliff, and arguably took himself out of relevance to the Senate’s decision-making. […]

The Rude Pundit: Republicans Believe the United States Is So Weak That It Couldn’t Handle Removing Trump from Office

There are so many arguments that Republicans make regarding the impeachment of Donald Trump that range from blatant bullshit to explosive diarrhea. The laughably hypocritical cries of “Democrats hate this president” are lost every time Trump himself calls Democrats “traitors” who “hate the United States” and are “radical left” “socialists.” And, yes, we all remember […]

Eric Boehlert: How 2016 Failures Keep Haunting The Beltway Media

The Hillary Clinton exoneration tour continues, and with it comes the deafening silence from news organization that gleefully bought into GOP attacks on her during the 2016 campaign. Determined to never acknowledge their sweeping failures during the last presidential cycle, the Beltway media show no signs of having learned anything over the last four years. Indeed, newsrooms […]

The Rude Pundit: Trump Loses Any Time He’s Judged Objectively

This week, the Government Accountability Office, essentially the federal government’s rule enforcer and auditor, located in the Legislative branch, put out a decision that the Trump administration violated the law when it withheld funds from Ukraine that Congress had appropriated for that country. The law that was broken is the Impoundment Control Act, which says that the president can […]

Neal Katyal: Lev Parnas and Rudy Giuliani have demolished Trump’s claims of innocence

Americans who have been wondering why President Trump has taken the extraordinary step of trying to block every document from being released to Congress in his impeachment inquiry need wonder no longer. The new documents released Tuesday evening by the House Intelligence Committee were devastating to Trump’s continuing — if shifting — defense of his Ukraine extortion scandal, just […]

Eric Boehlert: Did American Media Learn Anything From The Iraq Debacle?

The press sure seems to love glorifying Republican presidents against the backdrop of possible war.  Rushing in to get the behind-the-scenes telling of how Donald Trump decided to approve the drone killing of Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani, who was killed while traveling in a convoy near the Baghdad International Airport on January 2, CNN collected pleasing […]

Charlie Pierce: I Don’t Trust Bolton as Far as the Car Threw Me

Forgive me if I don’t turn handsprings. –The House has concluded its Constitutional responsibility by adopting Articles of Impeachment related to the Ukraine matter. It now falls to the Senate to fulfill its Constitutional obligation to try impeachments, and it does not appear possible that a final judicial resolution of the still-unanswered Constitutional questions can be […]

Eric Boehlert: 2019, the year the press tried—and failed—to stand up to Trump

With Donald Trump becoming the first American president to be impeached in his first term, while holed up in the White House tweeting endless attacks around the clock like some internet troll, 2019 should have been the year the Beltway media finally shed its signature timidity and forcefully stood up to him. This should have been […]

The Rude Pundit: Haiku Review of 2019… Out of the Blue and Into the Black

This fucked-up year is going to seem like an amuse-bouche of insanity by the time 2020’s shit fight in a monkey house is over. As both impeachment and election pressure amps up for President Dumbfuck McRageface, I wouldn’t be surprised if we see even more violence against racial and ethnic groups, against trans people and […]

Charlie Pierce: I’m a Lucky Motherf*cker. We All Are.

As you may have noticed, the shebeen has been disarranged for the past couple of weeks. The sudden intervention of an automobile into my affairs—and, it must be said, into my lower back—has kept me watching the considerable landfill of recent news from the sidelines—often, I must admit, severely hopped up on goofballs, as Joe […]

The Rude Pundit: Christmas Nativities 2019… Now with Zombies (Because Sure, Why Not?)

Like movies about suicidal snowmen and tortured ghosts and pole-frozen tongues, some things are a tradition around the rude house. Beloved reruns are good for the soul. My favorites to trot out this week are the Invader Zim Christmas episode and Olive the Other Reindeer. Even here, in Left Blogsylvania, we can indulge in revisiting old posts. Read […]

Charlie Pierce: Only One American Political Organization Can Save the Republic Now

The way I look at things these days—which is to say, largely prone—we all have to come to face one big, hairy, honking, ugly fact about the situation in the country. There is only one organized political entity in the country right now capable of arresting the republic’s slide toward the boneyard wherein presently reside […]

Eric Boehlert: The New York Times’ impeachment coverage devolves into Republican talking points

Firmly adopting Republican spin as the best way to view the House impeachment of Donald Trump, The New York Times in recent days appears to have forfeited much of its news coverage to the GOP. Adopting Republican talking points that impeachment is “a political plus” for Trump; “risky” for Democrats; that the White House’s impeachment war room is humming on all cylinders; Democrats […]

The Rude Pundit: A Few Questions for Enraged Republicans

In the wake of Democrats finally loading the cannon on actual articles of impeachment, Republicans are somewhere between frantic denial and explosive apoplexy as they insist that Donald Trump did nothing wrong in his dealings with Ukraine and Congress. So I have a few questions for ’em. Read The Rude Pundit’s questions at his blog.

Charlie Pierce: Trump Has Begun the Process of Selling Out Rudy Giuliani

And, right before the holiday season officially begins, the last piece of the puzzle locks into place, and the last alibi falls apart like an overcooked turkey. From The New York Times: Lawyers from the White House counsel’s office told Mr. Trump in late August about the complaint, explaining that they were trying to determine whether […]

Natasha Bertrand: Senate panel look into Ukraine interference comes up short

With the impeachment inquiry charging forward, President Donald Trump’s allies have defended his demand for political investigations from Ukraine by claiming that the government in Kyiv tried to sabotage his candidacy and boost Hillary Clinton in 2016. “Russia was very aggressive and they’re much more sophisticated, but the fact that Russia was so aggressive does […]

Jennifer Rubin: Nadler calls Trump’s bluff

When the House Intelligence Committee held depositions of key witnesses, President Trump’s lawyers cried: “Unfair! Secret hearings!” In fact, a slew of Republicans had the right to ask questions, though some chose not to attend. When the hearings moved to a public phase, the White House hollered: “Unfair! Trump’s lawyer isn’t present!” When the House […]

Harry Litman: The wait to see Trump’s taxes may have just gotten a lot longer

The chances just dramatically increased that President Trump will be able to keep his tax records secret through the 2020 election. The Supreme Court’s move Monday to grant a stay in one case involving the president’s returns means that neither members of Congress nor prosecutors — specifically, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. — may not be […]

The Rude Pundit: Note to Democrats… Call the GOP’s Bluff

Oh, it would be a shit show of open sewer proportions, for sure. It would be a scuzzy circus on top of a cheap zoo covered with crazy sauce. But House Democrats should call the bluff of the increasingly divorced-from-reality Republicans and hold hearings on all the fuckery they claim has been going on. Like […]

Eric Boehlert: Impeachment hearings confirm Republican Party is detached from reality. What does the press do now?

Republicans proudly advertised their radical ways during Wednesday’s impeachment hearings into Donald Trump, wallowing in conspiracies and embracing debunked claims. The question now: How does the Beltway media cover a party that has aggressively removed itself from reality? How does the news business describe and treat a political party that routinely echoes the most unbelievable claims from Fox […]

The Rude Pundit: Impeachment Hearings… Yovanovitch Kicks Trump’s Ass

Apparently, President Donald Trump, who is just large sack of yams mashed with sadness, decided that he would try to distract from the impeachment hearings today. He first tried by releasing the pseudo-transcript of a phone call between him and Ukrainian President Zelensky that occurred before the one where he pressured Zelensky to investigate Joe Biden’s son. […]

Charlie Pierce: Matt Gaetz and Jim Jordan Just Debuted the Trump Circus Defense

Friday’s Transcripts of the Day were those of Fiona Hill and Colonel Alexander Vindland, and, yes, they pretty much prove that the president* is as guilty as sin, even as his own sins, which are considerable. But the most entertaining parts of the new transcripts, and the sections that give us some kind of indication […]

Eric Boehlert: Stop doing this… CBS News hires Fox News reporter who constantly peddled Obama, Clinton conspiracies

In January 2016, Catherine Herridge, Fox News’ longtime chief intelligence correspondent, reported a huge scoop: No fewer than 150 FBI agents were investigating Hillary Clinton’s emails and the private server she used while serving as secretary of state. The number, as part of Herridge’s exclusive report based on anonymous sources, was shocking. If the FBI had assigned 150 […]

Eric Boehlert: CNN’s Sean Duffy problem is only going to get worse

How do you solve a problem like Sean Duffy? The former Republican congressman, who was hired by CNN to blindly defend Donald Trump while the impeachment process unfolds, is creating problems for the network by constantly fabricating facts and spreading reckless and dangerous conspiracy theories. And yes, he’s only been on the CNN payroll for 10 days. Read the rest […]

Eric Boehlert: Why is Facebook trying to re-elect Trump?

Bullying works.  Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been on a GOP charm offensive, and it seems to be working for the social media behemoth as it makes its allegiance to the Republican Party more open. In the days preceding his latest testimony before Congress, Zuckerberg had been “hosting a series of dinners with conservative journalists, right-wing […]

The Rude Pundit: Trump’s Lawyer thinks he’s a King

Even in the realm of political and legal norms that the Trump administration is forcibly bending over the desk in the Oval Office and reaming out with George Washington’s femur, yesterday was a pretty fucking stunning attempt to lay waste to the foundations of the country. For that was when a judge in New York City asked William […]

Of course Trump should be kicked off Twitter

Enough is enough. If there was a tipping point for Donald Trump’s blatant abuse of Twitter with his hate speech, it may have come when he recently posted a series of tweets warning of a second Civil War if he were to be impeached and removed, quoting Pastor Robert Jeffress on Fox & Friends. Even one […]

The Madman and the Turks

It’s definitely new to be living in a country led by someone who is, at the very least, quickly deteriorating mentally. Hell, at least Ronald Reagan had the sense to let others do his job when his faculties were fading. But that’s the kindest reading of President Donald Trump. More likely, Trump is someone who […]

Washington Post: We investigated the Watergate scandal. We believe Trump should be impeached.

We, former members of the Watergate special prosecutor force, believe there exists compelling prima facie evidence that President Trump has committed impeachable offenses. This evidence can be accepted as sufficient for impeachment, unless disproved by any contrary evidence that the president may choose to offer. The ultimate judgment on whether to impeach the president is for members […]

Rude Pundit: Random Observations on Two Nights of Trump Bats***tery

1. At his campaign rallies of the damned the last two nights, in Minneapolis on Thursday and in Lake Charles, Louisiana, on Friday, President Donald Trump repeated one word like it was a tic or, more likely, the result of having the vocabulary of an Adderall-popping 8-year-old. That word? “Great.” Like when he was blowing Fox “news”: – […]

The Rude Pundit: That Letter From Trump Is Punk Ass Bitchery

The Constitution is pretty fucking clear in how vague it is about impeachment. All it says in Article I is “The House of Representatives shall choose their speaker and other officers; and shall have the sole power of impeachment” and “The Senate shall have the sole power to try all impeachments” with more procedure following […]

Charlie Pierce: President* Trump Abandons the Kurds in Syria Overnight

You get the feeling now that, with time running out on El Caudillo del Mar-a-Lago and his retinue of crooks and mountebanks, all the dark debts he owes to people for their help in getting elected are coming due, the debts to Vladimir Putin and the Volga Bagmen first among them. There was the extortion plot aimed […]

Eric Boehlert: Visiting foreign journalists call out Trump’s increasingly erratic behavior. Why won’t D.C. press?

Donald Trump’s stupefying public performances last Wednesday as the widening collusion scandal continued to gain momentum were stunning, even by his erratic standards. Trump uncorked rambling, incoherent, angry, whiny monologues that were filled with lies and rattled conspiracy theories. That’s when he wasn’t yelling at a Reuters reporter and threatening to sue members of Congress. Incredibly, both disturbing Alex […]

The Rude Pundit: Trump’s Madness By the Numbers

16 – Number of times Trump declared his conversation with Ukraine’s President Zelensky “perfect” 12 – Number of times Trump said the conversation or something else was “nice” (note: Trump was not nice in the conversation.) 3 – Number of times Trump brought up Lindsey Graham telling him “I never knew you were that nice” (or a […]

Maya Wiley: Impeach William Barr

When William Barr was appointed attorney general, I believed he was capable of sticking to the rule of law and ensuring the Department of Justice maintained the public trust in the midst of an investigation of the president. I said as much on live TV. I was wrong. William Barr has eroded public trust in […]

Rude Pundit: That Trump/Zelensky Call Was F***ed Up for Even More Reasons Than Biden

It’s pretty goddamn clear that the motherfuckin’ quid has a motherfuckin’ pro quo in the weird pseudo-transcript of the July 25 phone call between Donald Trump and President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine. And a great deal of it all comes down to the word “though.” Zelensky says, “I would also like to thank you for your great support in the area […]

Rep. Maxine Waters Statement on the Formal Impeachment Inquiry of Donald J. Trump

WASHINGTON – Rep. Maxine Waters (CA-43) issued the following statement on the formal impeachment inquiry of Donald J. Trump: “I am supportive of the leadership of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi who has united the Democratic Caucus and has formalized an impeachment inquiry of the current President of the United States. Donald Trump has admitted to abusing […]

Charlie Pierce: Treason Doesn’t Require an Enemy at War

Well, Bill Weld, former governor of the Commonwealth (God save it!), really shot the moon to begin the week. Appearing on MSNBC, Weld made it plain. From the Washington Post: “Talk about pressuring a foreign country to interfere with and control a U.S. election,” Weld said during an appearance on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “It couldn’t be […]

Eric Boehlert: Kavanaugh’s confirmation was built on lies. The entire GOP traffics in lies. Why the press silence?

We’re witnessing a political revolution in this country, and the press is missing this monumental shift. It’s not that journalists can’t spot the game-changing story; it’s that they’re too afraid to document it. They’re too bullied to address it forcefully.   In the Donald Trump era, lying has become an unequivocal hallmark of the Republican Party and its political strategy. […]

Eric Boehlert: Kavanaugh’s confirmation was built on lies. The entire GOP traffics in lies. Why the press silence?

We’re witnessing a political revolution in this country, and the press is missing this monumental shift. It’s not that journalists can’t spot the game-changing story; it’s that they’re too afraid to document it. They’re too bullied to address it forcefully.   In the Donald Trump era, lying has become an unequivocal hallmark of the Republican Party and its political strategy. […]

Richard Painter: If Democrats don’t impeach, “they risk losing to Donald Trump”

Robert Mueller’s report, even in redacted form, reveals how Donald Trump and his inner circle colluded with a foreign power to undermine American democracy. It also shows a president and his allies who were and are willing to obstruct and otherwise interfere with justice in order to remain in power. The Trump regime’s assault on […]

Charlie Pierce: Elizabeth Warren Is Having One Seriously Big Monday

Senator Professor Warren continues to play error-free baseball in this here presidential campaign. Not only does she schedule a certified Big Speech in Washington Square Park in New York on Monday night to talk about the contributions of women to the labor movement not far from the site of the Triangle Shirtwaist fire, but also, […]

The Rude Pundit: How Much of a Pu**y A** Bi*ch Is Donald Trump? An Investigation

You don’t really need to know why model and TV host Chrissy Teigen called President Donald Trump a “pussy ass bitch.” I mean, you can probably think of a dozen reasons right off the top of your head and nod, saying, “Yeah, that makes sense.” Because, obviously, Donald Trump is a pussy ass bitch. He’s always been a […]

Tom Steyer: Democratic leaders, stop dragging your feet and impeach Trump now

Donald Trump is, and has always been, a threat to our democracy. The long rap sheet of crimes perpetrated by this president is getting longer every day; it only starts with special counsel Robert Mueller’s report. And now Congress has returned from recess to a country that’s reeling from a president who clearly lacks both […]

A Powerful Sisterhood: Meet the Rocking Legal Analysts of MSNBC

Maya. Joyce. Jill. If you are an avid watcher of MSNBC, you know these women by their first names. They are legal analysts, but I think of them as the Avengers—only talking is their superpower, and right now, for them and their fans, the Zombie Apocalypse is in D.C. Once relatively obscure, toiling in the […]

Natasha Bertrand: Air Force leaders order probe of Trump resort stays

The U.S. Air Force has ordered a world-wide review of how it chooses overnight accommodations on long flights following revelations that air crews had occasionally stayed at President Donald Trump’s Scotland resort while refueling at a small commercial airport nearby. The review comes as additional instances of military personnel staying at Trump properties have been […]

Eric Boehlert: Fox News, GOP media now warn of bloodshed if Democrats win in 2020

That’s one way to try halt public debate in this country: by threatening mass violence and a bloody people’s revolt in the streets. That’s what conservative media voices, including those on Fox News, have done in recent days. Specifically, the reckless rhetoric has revolved around proposed new gun laws in the wake of America’s latest string […]

The Rude Pundit: Corporate America Is Finally Getting Sick of Your Guns

How fucking pathetic is this: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and his mass murder-enablers in the GOP caucus are refusing to do anything to tighten gun laws, including things that are supported by between 60 and 90% of Americans. McConnell is taking the bitch way out by saying that he won’t bring to the floor anything that […]

Bob Cesca: “Moscow Mitch” wants an election overrun by trolls and plunged into chaos

In the interest of big-picturing the past week or so, we learned from the Republican-controlled Senate Intelligence Committee that Russian hackers successfully infiltrated election systems in all 50 states during the 2016 election cycle. We also learned that the accused felon who was installed as commander in chief as a likely consequence of that cyber-attack spent […]

The Rude Pundit: America Is Not Just for Americans

At my college, the semester just started. And in my classes, as usual, I have an array of students from other countries, including Syria and Lebanon. I have said on other occasions that my Middle Eastern students are almost always some of the best, hardest-working, least-complaining ones. It’s just an anecdotal observation based on years […]

Charlie Pierce: Here’s One Way for the Never Trumpers to Find Redemption

Recently, I have become intrigued by President Benjamin Harrison. I am, as has been said by editors and friends, very easily intrigued. I fell into this most recent interest when, while backgrounding myself on tariffs, I learned that President Harrison had as pets two possums. One was named Mr. Reciprocity and the other was named […]

Charlie Pierce: Tom Cotton Needs to Be Watched Carefully

There’s a new feelgood summer movie just released: Cotton Comes To Denmark. Over at Talking Points Memo, Summer Concepcion points us to this account from talkbusiness.net in which Senator Tom Cotton, the bobble-throated slapdick from Arkansas, takes credit for being the first to raise the looney-tunes notion of buying Greenland from Denmark. Read the rest of Charlie Pierce’s story at Esquire.

The Rude Pundit: Focusing on the Amazon in a Time of Maximum Distraction

The Amazon rainforest is on fire. The Arctic, along with parts of Alaska, Siberia, and British Columbia, have burned this summer or are continuing to burn.  The conflagrations destroying the forests of the northernmost parts of the world are a result of the effects of climate change. While climate change has made fires more likely, […]

Eric Boehlert: Trump dupes the press about passing gun laws—again

Folding like a cheap suit, Donald Trump once again signaled that he’s going to stand in the way of any kind of gun reform legislation in the wake of two more massacres that left 31 people dead and dozens more injured. Trump lying about gun laws and brazenly walking back his public pledges for action […]

The Rude Pundit: We’re Not Gonna Do a Damn Thing About Guns

A memo of talking points for House Republicans makes plain that the GOP has no intention of doing a goddamn thing about guns. The document, obtained by the Tampa Bay Times, is one of those repellent but totally expected things that clearly define exactly how low these motherfuckers are. It reads, in part, “White nationalism […]

Charlie Pierce: The Department of Justice Is Being Politicized From Top to Bottom

On Wednesday, an alleged drug dealer named Maurice Hill barricaded himself for nearly eight hours in a Philadelphia rowhouse, blasting away with an AR-15 and wounding six of that city’s police officers. (The gun battle began in the afternoon when officers showed up at the house trying to serve a warrant.) Eventually, after lengthy negotiations […]

Barbara McQuade: Jeffrey Epstein’s Death Once Again Denies His Victims Justice

For law enforcement officials, the first rule of dealing with victims of crime is to avoid re-victimizing them. In the case of Jeffrey Epstein, the Department of Justice failed.  Epstein, the wealthy financier who was charged with sex trafficking of underage girls, was found dead in his New York jail cell early Saturday morning in what Attorney […]

Eric Boehlert: Memo to media, ‘Congress’ isn’t blocking new gun laws—the GOP is

Obstructionist Republicans have been blocking common-sense gun laws for years, even as the laundry list of gun massacres continues to grow. The radical maneuver comes against overwhelming public support for Democrat-backed legislation. If ever there’s been an example of an entire political party in America completely out of step with the country, this is it. […]

The Rude Pundit: We Are Led by Ghouls and Goons

Check out this pair of fucking ghouls, acting like they just stole a baby to drink its sweet, young blood so they can live on for a few precious days before they suck another child dry. What you’re looking at is Donald Trump, a worn-out sack of lies painted orange and shoved into a terrible […]

Bob Cesca: America’s recurring doomsday is by design – Gun culture is now part of our DNA

As we look back at the twin massacres in El Paso and Dayton with fear, crushing sadness and mind-blowing frustration due to the helplessness of it all, including the usual political cowardice, a clear majority of Americans continue to support reasonable and obvious regulations to limit the supply of these deadly retail products.  But what about the demand? What about the […]

Eric Boehlert: How The New York Times’ obsession with white voters helps amplify Trump’s racism

Forever committed to shining a constant, glowing spotlight on members of Donald Trump’s political base with a series of endless updates that closely examine their unwavering support, The New York Times has carved out a completely new political beat during the past two years. The Times’ white voter obsession (see here, here, here, here,  here, here, and here) remains baffling and absurd as a form of political journalism. […]

The Rude Pundit: Profiles in Cowardice – Random Observations on the Mueller Hearings

Yesterday’s congressional hearings with former Special Counsel Robert Mueller revealed the profound cowardice at the heart of our nation’s leaders right now in dealing with Donald Trump (himself a coward of the lowest order) and the crimes that he has so blatantly committed and continues to commit on a daily basis. Anyone who has actually […]

Eric Boehlert: How the press rewards GOP cowardice in the age of Trump

After Donald Trump ignited a firestorm by launching a racist attack on four Democratic members of Congress, the Beltway press last week temporarily revised a time-honored journalism tradition of forcing members of the president’s party to respond publicly to controversial behavior. The results were utterly predictable, of course, with most Republicans refusing to criticize Trump’s […]

Let’s Have This G**damn Political Race War Already

At least now Democrats can stop fucking pretending that there is any reasoning with Republicans or anyone on the right at this point. By refusing to condemn President Donald Trump’s blatantly racist statements as “racist,” by continuing and expanding on Trump’s attacks on four non-white Democratic congresswomen in saying that they should leave the United […]

Bill Barr Is Earning Every Dime They’re Paying Him

It must be hard being William Barr, the White House’s pet Attorney General. He must look like the hero comic of some silent film. He’s running around from pillar to post, turning off investigations at every turn. Most recently, it appears that the whole Stormy Daniels affair is going to come down to only Michael […]

Let’s end the media charade that Trump’s a master communicator

Has any recent president snatched political defeat from the jaws of victory quite the way Donald Trump has done over the last few days? Watching the Democratic Party become ensnared in a nasty civil war being fought among House leaders and insurgent freshman congresswoman, Trump inexplicably entered the fray over the weekend by posting blatantly racist tweets about […]