One of the little-noticed moves by President Biden in his first days in office was an executive order that required federal agencies to examine their policies and programs to identify whether and how they perpetuate barriers to equal opportunity. It was a stab at addressing structural inequality in the wake of the national protests over […]
Author: Stephanie Mencimer
Reports: Ron Klain Is Expected to Leave White House Post
A few weeks ago, I was having lunch with a friend who is a former cop and a MAGA-leaning conservative. We were arguing about politics as usual, when he went on a rant about “President Ron Klain.” White House chiefs of staff generally aren’t household names, so I was impressed with his level of knowledge […]
Mike Pence Is Courting Controversial Anti-Gay Pastors
When he ran for president in 2008, the late Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) denounced the views of Texas evangelical minister John Hagee as “crazy and unacceptable” and rejected his endorsement for the GOP nomination. But tomorrow, former Vice President Mike Pence, who has presidential aspirations for 2024, will engage in a fireside chat with Hagee […]
The Rise and Fall of Stop the Steal’s Favorite Conference
The video was exceptionally violent even for a pro-Trump meme. With his face superimposed over that of Colin Firth from the 2014 movie Kingsman: The Secret Service, Donald Trump strides through the “Church of Fake News” and plunges a spear into the late Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). He holds Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) hostage while blasting away […]
This MAGA PAC Raised Nearly $2 Million Off the Trucker Protests. Where Did All the Money Go?
Alex Phillips was standing one block from the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, when he warned an interviewer that members of Congress who went along with certifying the results of the presidential election would suffer the consequences in the midterms. As President Donald Trump’s speech at the Ellipse echoed from the loudspeakers, he told […]
Ammon Bundy Led an Armed Standoff With the Government. 100,000 People Still Voted for Him.
Of all the far-right extremists on the ballot Tuesday, perhaps none had the bona fides of Ammon Bundy. In 2014, he took part in an armed standoff with the Bureau of Land Management at his father Cliven’s Nevada ranch after agents tried to impound Cliven’s cows for his failure to pay 20 years worth of […]
Utah Sen. Mike Lee Betrayed the Constitution and Won Reelection
For most of the past year, Sen. Mike Lee’s approval ratings never cracked 50 percent. He was surprisingly unpopular for a Republican in Utah. He offended LDS voters in 2020 by comparing President Donald Trump to Captain Moroni, one of the most revered figures in the Book of Mormon. His fealty to Trump wasn’t always appreciated […]
Evan McMullin Put Democracy On the Ballot. Utah Voters Probably Won’t Care.
In mid-October, the actor Mark Hamill, a.k.a. Luke Skywalker, turned his star power on Evan McMullin, who is running a surprisingly competitive race for Senate in Utah. First came the tweet: “I like @EvanMcMullin SO much, it makes me wish I lived in Utah so I could vote for him!*” Then a Zoom call, cheering […]
Experts Are Seeing a Wave of QAnon-linked Crimes. The Attack on Pelosi’s Husband Might Be the Latest.
David DePape, the man accused of bludgeoning the husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi early Friday morning apparently posted a lot of politically extreme things online and apparently subscribed to a lot of conspiracy theories. Among them: QAnon. According to the Associated Press, DePape wrote blog posts as recently as August 24 promoting the far-right […]
US Finally Releases 75-Year-Old Guantanamo Bay Inmate
The Guantanamo Bay detention center isn’t anyone’s idea of an assisted living facility. But the controversial prison that former defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld declared in 2002 would hold “the worst of the worst” terrorism suspects has been open for so long that many inmates are now elderly people with health problems. Today, the Biden administration finally […]