Politics
The Pitch for a Unity Ticket in 2024 Keeps Getting Weaker
As it seemingly embraces a 15-week abortion ban, No Labels, the group pitching a third-party alternative, increasingly looks like a Joe Biden spoiler.
Why Trump’s Legal Cases Are Irresistible for Everyone but the Biden Campaign
The former president is in plenty of legal jeopardy. But all the court action could end up being a political distraction.
Trump Campaign
Colorado Supreme Court Boots Trump From Ballot. What Will It Mean for 2024?
The state’s high court said Trump is disqualified for participating in an insurrection. But with the case likely headed for the Supreme Court, the ultimate impact of the ruling remains to be seen. “We travel in uncharted territory,” the Colorado court acknowledged in its landmark 4-3 decision.
GOP
Republicans Don’t Want to Answer for Trump’s Racist Anti-Immigrant Rant
Trump’s defenders suggest he was merely talking about policy when he said immigrants were “poisoning the blood of the country.” But there was nothing ambiguous about his remarks.
2024 Election
Overturning Roe Has Been a Horror Show
Medical nightmares are happening before our eyes, and even as Americans in red and blue states express support for abortion rights, the GOP seems determined to crack down further.
SCOTUS
The Clarence Thomas Scandal Is Somehow Looking Even Worse
ProPublica reports that Thomas was in debt, frustrated with his salary, and implying he’d resign from the Supreme Court if his financial situation didn’t change—just before Harlan Crow and other conservatives started lavishing him with expensive gifts and luxury vacations.
2024 CAMPAIGN
“Poisoning the Blood”: Donald Trump Doubles Down On Anti-Migrant Language During New Hampshire Rally
The Biden campaign said Trump “parroted Hitler … and threaten[ed] American democracy.”
SANDY HOOK PAYOUT
Alex Jones Makes Low-Ball Offer to Sandy Hook Families: $55 Million Over A Decade
A lawyer representing the shooting victims’ relatives, who won defamation judgments worth $1.4 billion, said Jones's proposal “falls woefully short.”
Middle East
White House: IDF Mistaken Killing of Three Israeli Hostages “A Terrible Tragedy”
The hostages were not wearing shirts and waving a white flag on a stick, according to preliminary military reports.
Scandals
Bridget and Christian Ziegler: Everything We Know About the MAGA-Couple Scandal Involving Threesomes, an Alleged Payout, a Rape Accusation, and the Height of Republican Hypocrisy
The chairman of the Republican Party of Florida has been accused of raping a woman he and his wife previously had a threesome with. That’s just one part of the story.
Couldn’t Have Happened To A Nicer Guy
Rudy Giuliani Is Absolutely F--ked, Must Pay $148 Million to the Election Workers He Defamed
Oh, and he could be going to prison next.
Trump Trials
Jack Smith May Have a Secret Weapon Against Donald Trump at the Supreme Court
The former president has already lost many times before the justices. Whether he’s absolutely immune from prosecution is his latest Hail Mary. But there’s a twist.
Levin Report
Kevin McCarthy Says He Loved “Every Single Day” in Congress, Where His Colleagues Despised Him and Threw Him Out on His Ass
In one final humiliation, almost no one attended McCarthy’s goodbye speech.
Inside the Hive
The Democratic Strategist Who’s Bullish About Biden
Democratic strategist Simon Rosenberg explains why he’s so optimistic about President Biden’s chances in 2024 despite all the bed-wetting among pundits and the media.
Crime
Rudy Giuliani Is a Hop, Skip, and a Jump Away From Telling His Cellmate “They Used to Call Me America’s Mayor”
He also might be officially broke before 2024 is out.
Media
“A Slippery Slope”: NYPD is Relocating Reporters From Police HQ to a Trailer
Officials say the move is for space reasons. But it comes “against a backdrop of complaints about the coverage of crime,” says one veteran crime reporter, which has “raised everybody’s antenna.”
Congress
Republicans Vote to Prolong Their Desperate Fishing Expedition Into Biden
Without a single shred of evidence, House Republicans have voted to approve an impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden. The president, meanwhile, called the vote a “baseless political stunt.”
Levin Report
Ted Cruz Won’t Discuss Texas’s Horrific Treatment of Woman Denied Abortion Despite Fatal Fetus Diagnosis (Because He Knows How Bad It Looks)
When you’re a certified weasel and a coward.
Media
“We Wanted to Keep Chasing It”: How Student Journalists at Harvard and Penn Are Beating Big-Time Reporters to the Punch
So much for finals! Crimson and Daily Pennsylvanian scribes are providing “blow-by-blow” coverage of the campus antisemitism scandals embroiling (recently ousted) Penn president Liz Magill and Harvard’s (safe-for-now) Claudine Gay.
Impeachment
Republicans Can’t Believe Fox News Keeps Calling Them Out on Their Impeachment Bulls--t
House Oversight Committee chair James Comer has literally said he won’t go on Steve Doocy’s show anymore because of it.
Israel-Hamas Conflict
Biden Says Netanyahu Must “Change” His Government—But Vows “Unshakeable” Support Either Way
The president is getting more candid about his frustrations with his Israeli counterpart, warning that Netanyahu is “starting to lose” international backing. But for now, that rhetorical shift hasn't come with a shift in policy.