One of my ironclad rules of journalism is this: When you see an elephant flying, don’t laugh, don’t doubt, don’t sneer — take notes. Something very new and important is happening and we need to understand it. Last week, I saw an elephant fly: The Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer — an authentic, lifelong supporter […]
Read MoreTag: United States Politics and Government
R.B.G. Award Organizer Cancels Ceremony After Fallout Over Honorees
The organizer behind an honor named for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a lifelong champion of women’s rights and liberal causes, is canceling the award ceremony scheduled for April after facing blistering criticism from her family and friends over several of this year’s planned recipients. Justice Ginsburg helped establish the award in 2019, the year before […]
Read MoreChinese Magnate Admits to Making Straw Donations to N.Y. Politicians
A Chinese business titan pleaded guilty on Monday to federal charges that he made more than $10,000 in straw donor contributions to political candidates — including, a person familiar with the case said, to a New York congressman and Mayor Eric Adams. Hui Qin, 56, of Old Westbury, N.Y., who was once listed on Forbes […]
Read MoreThe Internet Is a Wasteland, So Give Kids Better Places to Go
In January, I had the odd experience of nodding along with Senator Lindsey Graham, who can usually be relied on to be wrong, as he berated supervillain Mark Zuckerberg, head of Facebook’s parent company, Meta, about the effect its products have on kids. “You have blood on your hands,” said Graham. That evening, I moderated […]
Read MoreSerbian Leader Says Kushner Deal Is Not an Effort to Influence Trump
The president of Serbia on Monday batted away any suggestion that he might have intentionally tried to steer a valuable real estate project in Serbia’s capital to Jared Kushner, Donald J. Trump’s son-in-law, in an effort to influence Mr. Trump should he return to the White House. “I died laughing,” the Serbian leader, Aleksandar Vucic, […]
Read MoreSupreme Court Seems Likely to Side With NRA in First Amendment Case
A majority of the Supreme Court appeared on Monday to embrace arguments by the National Rifle Association that a New York State official violated the First Amendment by trying to dissuade companies from doing business with it after a deadly school shooting. The dispute, which began after a gunman opened fire in 2018 at Marjory […]
Read MoreManafort in Talks to Return for the Republican National Convention
Paul Manafort, a top adviser to Donald J. Trump’s 2016 campaign who was pardoned by the former president at the end of his White House term, is in discussions to return to help with the Republican National Convention, according to two people with direct knowledge of the matter. Mr. Manafort’s potential role at the party’s […]
Read MoreKennedy Family, Sans RFK Jr., Poses With Biden at the White House
Under normal circumstances, a visit by the Kennedy family to the White House on St. Patrick’s Day — a storied political family with Irish roots, hosted by a president of Irish heritage — might not be particularly newsworthy. But this year, the gathering had an undertone of family drama and political repudiation. Robert F. Kennedy […]
Read MoreMike Pence Rues the Day
Gail Collins: Bret, I feel obligated to start out by asking you — TikTok? Potential foreign agent? Bret Stephens: I think of TikTok in two ways. First, as a gigantic vacuum cleaner of personal data — possibly including your location — that goes directly from the unsuspecting eyes, thumbs and minds of its 170 million […]
Read MoreMark Robinson, the Republican With a Right-Wing Vision for North Carolina
As Mark Robinson completed his rapid six-year rise from conservative internet sensation to the Republican nominee for North Carolina governor, he worked relentlessly to sell his political vision to evangelical Christians. Traveling from church to church and thundering away on social media, he condemned “transgenderism” and “homosexuality” as “filth.” He said Christians should be led […]
Read MoreJustice Breyer, Off the Bench, Sounds an Alarm Over the Supreme Court’s Direction
Justice Stephen G. Breyer’s Supreme Court chambers are not quite as grand as those he occupied before he retired in 2022, but they are still pretty nice. As before, they include a working fireplace, which was crackling when I went to visit him on a temperate afternoon in late February to talk about his new […]
Read MoreWhite House’s Efforts to Combat Misinformation Face Supreme Court Test
The Supreme Court will hear arguments on Monday on whether the Biden administration violated the First Amendment in combating what it said was misinformation on social media platforms. It is the latest in an extraordinary series of cases this term requiring the justices to assess the meaning of free speech in the internet era. The […]
Read MoreIs Voting Still Worth It? Just Ask Ms. Gadson-Birch.
Beverly Gadson-Birch is, supposedly, retired. But spend any time with Ms. Gadson-Birch, a community activist, business owner and grandmother in Charleston, S.C., and you may struggle, as I did, to keep up with her. She holds political meetings at local hotels. She wants to restart a local newspaper. She buttonholes friends, family members and strangers, […]
Read MoreKushner Deal in Serbia Follows Earlier Interest by Trump
The plan by Jared Kushner and his business partners to redevelop a prized location in Serbia’s capital, Belgrade, echoes interest from Donald J. Trump a decade ago in pursuing a deal for the site and a similar proposal pushed during his White House term by a top aide now working with Mr. Kushner, a review […]
Read MoreKhanna Explains Opposition to TikTok Bill While Senators Signal Openness
Representative Ro Khanna, the California Democrat representing Silicon Valley, laid out his case against a sweeping ban of the social media platform TikTok on Sunday after opposing legislation that overwhelmingly passed the House last week, saying the bill would be ineffective. The legislation passed the House, 352 to 65, on Wednesday, with Mr. Khanna among […]
Read MoreHow Trump’s Allies Are Winning the War Over Disinformation
In the wake of the riot on Capitol Hill on Jan. 6, 2021, a groundswell built in Washington to rein in the onslaught of lies that had fueled the assault on the peaceful transfer of power. Social media companies suspended Donald J. Trump, then the president, and many of his allies from the platforms they […]
Read MoreKellyanne Conway Has Some Weak Advice for Her Party
It is beyond obvious at this point that abortion is the Achilles’ heel of the Republican Party. The prospect of a national abortion ban almost certainly helped Democrats stave off a red wave in the 2022 midterm elections, and assisted them the following year in both statewide and state legislative races in Virginia and Kentucky. […]
Read MorePresident Biden, You Have Leverage That Can Save Lives in Gaza. Please Use It.
President Biden is sounding tougher toward Israel these days and showing more compassion for people starving in Gaza. “There are a lot of innocent people who are in trouble and dying,” Biden said. “And it’s got to stop.” But it’s not going to stop on its own — indeed, it may get worse if Israel […]
Read MoreShare of Democratic Registrations Is Declining, but What Does It Mean?
Newly registered voters, who are disproportionately young and nonwhite, have tended to lean Democratic. That’s been less and less true during the Biden era. A majority of states ask people to select a party affiliation when they register, and last year newly registered Democrats made up only about 53 percent of those who chose a […]
Read MoreRepublican Senate Slugfest in Ohio Fuels Jitters About Trump’s Candidate
With just days to go before the election, the three-way Republican Senate primary in Ohio has turned into a food fight, fueling concerns about former President Donald J. Trump’s favored candidate, Bernie Moreno. The contest on Tuesday to decide who will face Senator Sherrod Brown has been contentious for months, with Mr. Moreno, a wealthy […]
Read MoreAnkle Monitors and Curfews: Inside Biden’s New Tracking System for Migrant Families
On a recent evening in California, a woman named Sandra was at a birthday party with her 15-year-old son when she glanced at the clock. She started to panic: It was after 10 p.m. She had less than an hour to get home in time for an 11 p.m. curfew set by U.S. immigration authorities, […]
Read MoreStalling: A Time-Tested Legal Strategy That Keeps Working for Trump
The schedule seemed stacked against Donald J. Trump: four criminal trials in four cities, all in the same year he is running for president. But rather than doom Mr. Trump, the chaotic calendar might just save him. Mr. Trump, who as president helped reshape the federal judiciary, has already persuaded the Supreme Court to delay […]
Read MoreTikTok Bill’s Progress Slows in the Senate
After a bill that would force TikTok’s Chinese parent company to sell the app or face a nationwide ban sailed through the House at breakneck speed this week, its progress has slowed in the Senate. Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader who determines what legislation gets a vote, has not decided whether […]
Read MoreA Watershed Moment for the Politics of Israel, Courtesy of Chuck Schumer
Over 44 painstakingly scripted minutes on the floor of the Senate on Thursday, the majority leader, Chuck Schumer, spoke of his Jewish identity, his love for the State of Israel, his horror at the wanton slaughter of Israelis on Oct. 7 and his views on the apportionment of blame for the carnage in Gaza, saying […]
Read MoreBiden Embraces Schumer’s Speech Castigating Netanyahu
President Biden on Friday praised Senator Chuck Schumer’s address lashing out at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, calling it “a good speech” that raised concerns “shared not only by him but by many Americans.” Even though Mr. Biden did not explicitly endorse any of the specific criticisms in the speech, or Mr. Schumer’s call […]
Read MoreJared Kushner Pursuing Development Deals in Albania and Serbia
Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of Donald J. Trump, confirmed on Friday that he was closing in on major real estate deals in Albania and Serbia, the latest example of the former president’s family doing business abroad even as Mr. Trump seeks to return to the White House. Mr. Kushner’s plans in the Balkans appear to […]
Read MoreBernie Sanders Proposes Reducing Americans’ Workweek to 32 Hours
Senator Bernie Sanders this week unveiled legislation to reduce the standard workweek in the United States from 40 hours to 32, without a reduction in pay, saying Americans are working longer hours for less pay despite advances in technology and productivity. The law, if passed, would pare down the workweek over a four-year period, lowering […]
Read MoreWhite House Calls on Republicans to End Biden Impeachment Inquiry
The White House insisted on Friday that House Republicans end their effort to impeach President Biden, declaring that “enough is enough” after their monthslong inquiry failed to turn up promised evidence of high crimes and misdemeanors. “It is obviously time to move on, Mr. Speaker,” Edward N. Siskel, the White House counsel, wrote in a […]
Read MoreWhy Is Congress Probing a Union for Being Anti-Israel?
Like many progressive organizations, the Association of Legal Aid Attorneys, a union that represents public defenders in the New York City area, has been convulsed by battles over Israel’s war in Gaza. A recent article in the right-leaning Free Press revealed the strident and sometimes ugly language that union members used during a fight over […]
Read MoreDon’t Think of It as a Contest Between Biden and Trump
It’s official — we have a rematch. This week, both Joe Biden and Donald Trump officially secured the delegates needed to win renomination in their respective primaries. This will be the first contest since the 1892 race between Benjamin Harrison and Grover Cleveland where a former challenger, now incumbent, faces off against a former incumbent, […]
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