“There simply won’t be much movement in the aggregate,” he added. “This means that even small things on the margin could end up mattering a lot.” Levendusky, in contrast to some others I have quoted here, suggests that despite a difficult set of issues, Biden may be stronger than expected: In a normal year, Biden […]
Read MoreTag: Presidential Election of 2024
DeSantis Gets a $15 Million Cash Infusion and Moves Staff Into Iowa
Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida is relocating a significant portion of his presidential campaign staff from Tallahassee to Des Moines, according to his top deputies, redeploying his team to the leadoff state after a $15 million fund-raising haul that advisers said had helped stabilize his campaign. The push into Iowa highlights the state’s make-or-break status […]
Read More
Americans Deserve Better From the House of Representatives
The U.S. Capitol may be perched on a hill, but it is understandable why so many Americans look down on it. One of the main reasons is that their Congress, which ought to be a global beacon of liberal values, continues to succumb to self-inflicted paralysis. How else can it be that fewer than a […]
Read More
As Trump’s Legal Woes Have Escalated, So Have His Violent Remarks
Former President Donald J. Trump had a lot to say on the first day of the fraud trial against him and his company. Speaking to reporters at a Manhattan courthouse on Monday, he dismissed the judge as a “rogue” justice and said he did not “think the people of this country are going to stand […]
Read More
Biden Has to Look Beyond Trump and His MAGA Millions
Last week, President Biden gave a wide-ranging interview to John Harwood of ProPublica that touched on his presidency, the Republican Party and the present state and future status of American democracy. Early in the interview, Harwood asks Biden whether he thinks the threat to democracy is broader than the refusal of Donald Trump and his […]
Read More
How Trump’s Idea to Use Military Force in Mexico Became Embraced by GOP
The first time Donald Trump talked privately about shooting missiles into Mexico to take out drug labs, as far as his former aides can recall, was in early 2020. And the first time those comments became public was when his second defense secretary, Mark T. Esper, wrote in his memoir that Mr. Trump had raised […]
Read More
Kevin McCarthy Surprised Us All
Gail Collins: I didn’t think I’d be saying this, Bret, but we’ve dodged a shutdown. It’s a stupendous moment for Kevin McCarthy. Now if he gets tossed out as House speaker by the right wing, he’ll go down in history as the guy who sacrificed his career for the common good. As opposed to the […]
Read More
New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu on How Donald Trump Loses the Primary
I want to hand you the control, you the power, you the say, as an individual, what’s happening in your community. If you can articulate that, and get people there — it’s not easy. I think we do pretty well in New Hampshire. I think that’s one of the reasons that I stay popular. I’m […]
Read More
Trump’s Trial Starts Monday. It Will Spotlight What He’s Really Worth.
From his earliest days as a real estate developer to his renegade run for the White House, Donald J. Trump honed a very particular skill: the art of the boast. “I look better if I’m worth $10 billion than if I’m worth $4 billion,” he once said, disputing his ranking on the Forbes billionaires list. […]
Read More
As His Trial Begins, Trump Looks to Capitalize On It
Former President Donald J. Trump is expected to attend the opening of the civil trial in the New York attorney general’s fraud case against him on Monday, as his political team seeks to turn it into a rallying cry for supporters. The decision to show up voluntarily in court by Mr. Trump, who has already […]
Read More
Trump Kicks Off Swing in Iowa, Trying to Lock In Caucus Support
By the time the doors opened Sunday morning, the line to enter former President Donald J. Trump’s caucus organizing event in Ottumwa, Iowa, snaked down the sidewalk and around the parking lot. The hundreds of people who stood outside an event center in this small city, sweating through their “Make America Great Again” hats and […]
Read More
Christian Nationalism May Not Be Serious, but It’s Dangerous
The more I consider the challenge posed by Christian nationalism, the more I think most observers and critics are paying too much attention to the wrong group of Christian nationalists. We mainly think of Christian nationalism as a theology or at least as a philosophy. In reality, the Christian nationalist movement that actually matters is […]
Read More
Will Biden’s Climate Law Change Your Life Before November 2024?
If the programs fail, they could seriously mar the I.R.A.’s public image. And right now, they are faltering. Perhaps the biggest problem is inherent to their design. The most successful federal programs are simple, straightforward and easy to use. Think of the U.S. Postal Service sending free at-home Covid tests to all Americans or the […]
Read More
Nikki Haley Won the Debate Stage. Now, She’s Trying to Win Over Iowa.
About 15 minutes after Nikki Haley took the stage at a town hall in a Des Moines suburb on Saturday, the former governor of South Carolina and ambassador to the United Nations, was heckled — twice — by men demanding to know her views on Taylor Swift. Members of the crowd booed, and both questioners […]
Read More
Why Non-Trump Republicans Must Join Or Die. (They’ll Probably Still Die.)
I’m not sure that an assembly of presidential candidates have ever given off stronger loser vibes, if I may use a word favored by the 45th president of the United States, than the Republicans who debated at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library this week. A snap 538/Washington Post/Ipsos poll and a CNN focus group both […]
Read More
Republicans’ Promises to Combat Fentanyl Fall Flat With Some Voters
The official toxicology report states that Andrea Cahill’s son died at 19 years old from an accidental fentanyl overdose. But more than three years after Tyler Cahill’s death in his childhood bedroom, she doesn’t believe that. It was a poisoning, she says, and there is no question about whom to blame: “the cartels.” Ms. Cahill […]
Read More
Prosecutors Reassert Need for Gag Order on Trump in Elections Case
Federal prosecutors on Friday reasserted the need to impose a gag order on former President Donald J. Trump in the case accusing him of seeking to overturn the 2020 election. They said that even after they first asked a judge three weeks ago to limit his remarks, Mr. Trump has continued to wage “a sustained […]
Read More
Key GOP Megadonor Network Will Hear Pitches From DeSantis and Haley Camps
A network of megadonors whose biggest members have stayed on the sidelines in the Republican presidential primary will meet next month in Dallas as advisers to two of the candidates hoping to defeat Donald J. Trump will make one of their last pitches for support, according to two people briefed on the matter. The multiday […]
Read More
How Trump Is Complicating McCarthy’s Attempts to Avoid a Shutdown
When a group of House Republicans thwarted Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s attempt at averting a government shutdown, he fumed that he was being stymied by lawmakers who wanted to “burn the whole place down.” But he spared any public ire for the most powerful member of his party who has been encouraging a shutdown: former President […]
Read More
Our System Makes It Clear That Some Voices Are More Equal Than Others
But here’s where we come to the Catch-22, because the stability of our system rests on supermajority rules so strong that they stymie all but the broadest attempts to change that system. And who is to say that stability is such a paramount goal? In a dynamic society, which is to say in a human […]
Read More
We Need to Talk About Joe Biden
Listen to and follow ‘Matter of Opinion’Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music In 2020, Joe Biden handily beat Donald Trump in a race that was never particularly close. But now that the twice-impeached and four-times-indicted former president may once again be the Republican nominee, polls suggest they might be even, at best. Why isn’t […]
Read More
Republican Group Running Anti-Trump Ads Finds Little Is Working
A well-funded group of anti-Trump conservatives has sent its donors a remarkably candid memo that reveals how resilient former President Donald J. Trump has been against millions of dollars of negative ads the group deployed against him in two early-voting states. The political action committee, called Win It Back, has close ties to the influential […]
Read More
Viewership Fell Sharply for Second G.O.P. Debate
Fewer than 10 million people watched the Republican presidential debate on Wednesday night, according to preliminary data from Nielsen, a sign that interest in the race is waning without the presence of former President Donald J. Trump, the front-runner for his party’s nomination, who has so far refused to participate in the debates. The audience […]
Read More
DeSantis Says He Would Sign a 15-Week Abortion Ban as President
In the chaos of Wednesday night’s noisy Republican presidential debate, Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina interrupted Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida to pose a question on abortion that Mr. DeSantis had dodged directly answering for months. Would the Florida governor sign a “15-week limit” on abortion as president, Mr. Scott asked, talking over both […]
Read More
Biden Issues a Blistering Attack on Trump
President Biden issued a broad and blistering attack against former President Donald J. Trump on Thursday, accusing his predecessor and would-be successor of inciting violence, seeking unfettered power and plotting to undermine the Constitution if he returns to office in next year’s elections. In his most direct condemnation of his leading Republican challenger in many […]
Read More
Donald Trump’s Campaign of Violence and Lawlessness
Though it was lost in the four-year cyclone that was the presidency of Donald Trump, one of his most immoral acts was to pardon soldiers who were accused of committing war crimes by killing unarmed civilians or prisoners. Military leaders, including his own defense secretary and the secretary of the Army objected, saying it would […]
Read More
Newsom Emerges as Biden’s Top Surrogate But Promotes Himself, Too
For much of Wednesday evening, Gavin Newsom, the Democratic governor of California, drew nearly as much attention at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum in Simi Valley, Calif., as the Republican presidential candidates who were there for their second debate. Mr. Newsom spoke to Fox News, MSNBC and CNN. He was there before the […]
Read More
With Shutdown Looming, Biden Points to Republican Infighting
President Biden’s shutdown strategy is simple: Avoid one, if possible. But if not, make sure Americans know whom to blame. His aides at the White House and in his re-election campaign have spent the past several days describing the consequences of what they call an “extreme Republican shutdown” of the government: delayed disaster relief; no […]
Read More
DeSantis Clears a Debate Hurdle. Will It Be Enough to Build On?
At a time when his standing in the polls has slid — and Republican donors have talked about finding another candidate to stop Donald J. Trump from cruising to the nomination — Gov. Ron DeSantis acted like the former president’s leading challenger at the second Republican presidential debate. Standing center stage at the Ronald Reagan […]
Read More
In Michigan, Biden and Trump Offer a Preview of 2024
It’s going to be a long road to next November. And the first steps started this week. President Biden and former President Donald J. Trump traveled to Michigan, one day after the other, to speak directly to working-class voters in what amounted to a preview of a likely 2024 campaign. Their dueling styles were on […]
Read More
Nikki Haley and Tim Scott Clash at the Second GOP Debate
Nikki Haley, as governor of South Carolina in December 2012, appointed Tim Scott to the Senate. Nearly 11 years later, on Wednesday night, Ms. Haley said he had squandered repeated opportunities to rein in spending. Mr. Scott said Ms. Haley had never seen a federal dollar she didn’t like. “Bring it, Tim,” Ms. Haley said, […]
Read More