This is what Trump is trying to distract from, in his tantrum about vote counts today. Keep your eye on the ball, media. https://t.co/IeL3tzPD9X — Agent 99 (@clowd9ster) November 27, 2016 One may wonder why Donald Trump would be interested in tweeting about election recount efforts, given that it risks calling attention to the fact […]

This Thanksgiving, many of my friends are excited to welcome home their beloved children from college. I will soon send a child to college and know that I will experience that bittersweet mix of emotions when she leaves and then returns for precious holidays. But this year, our typically joyous season of Thanksgiving is laced […]

As of November 16, the Southern Poverty Law Center had collected 701 reports of hateful incidents of harassment from across the country in the wake of the election. California is the state with the highest number of reported incidents. The Los Angeles and San Francisco Bay Area chapters of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) […]

The DNC put together a lovely video featuring Americans expressing their thanks to President Obama, on his final Thanksgiving in office. If you are anything like me, you are having all kinds of feelings about that video, but chief among them is gratitude for a president who has worked so hard to better the lives […]

Donald Trump and his aides have long promised that he would be more civil on Twitter as he moves into his role as president. Yet his tweeted response to the death of former Cuban president Fidel Castro is a failure to keep that promise — and a failure of his first major diplomatic test: Fidel […]

News of Governor Nikki Haley’s selection as Donald Trump’s ambassador to the U.N. quickly gave rise to a particular narrative: Trump had chosen a former critic who gained significant national attention by taking credit for the removal of the Confederate flag from the South Carolina statehouse following the terrorist mass shooting in Charleston last June. But neither of […]

In an interview with New York Times reporters this week, President-elect Donald Trump announced that he “condemns” the white nationalists who have been celebrating his election. But many of the people Trump is bringing into his administration have connections to key players in the white nationalist community. Steve Bannon, Trump’s chief policy czar, spent years […]

Donald Trump’s selection of Betsy DeVos for Secretary of Education is not an encouraging sign for anyone who values equal access to education. DeVos is a champion and funder of charter schools and school vouchers. Like many “educational choice” advocates, Trump and DeVos insist that privatizing education will improve education. But all evidence points to […]

Throughout his time his in office, President Obama has attacked the issue of mass incarceration from many angles, and has successfully reduced the rates after nearly five decades of rising numbers: [media-credit name=”The Sentencing Project” link=”http://www.sentencingproject.org/criminal-justice-facts/” align=”aligncenter” width=”617″][/media-credit] How did Obama accomplish this, and what will happen to the policies that have achieved this success […]

The story of President-elect Donald Trump’s congratulatory phone call with Argentina President Mauricio Macri made quite a splash online Monday when Talking Points Memo picked it up, accusing Trump of “cashing in” by demanding President Macri help him get approval for the forthcoming Trump Tower Buenos Aires. But the story was quickly denied by both […]

Amidst an onslaught of troubling news, it was a welcome sight to see President Obama awarding comedian Ellen DeGeneres the Presidential Medal of Freedom, speaking admiringly of her courage in risking her career to come out and of her special gift for connecting people. “It’s easy to forget now, when we’ve come so far, where […]

Donald Trump tweeted that he is now considering retired neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Carson to lead the Department of Housing and Urban Development. I am seriously considering Dr. Ben Carson as the head of HUD. I've gotten to know him well–he's a greatly talented person who loves people! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 22, 2016 […]

Two ideas dominating coverage of Donald Trump throughout his presidential campaign, and increasing since his electoral victory, are his many conflicts of interest and his staunch and petulant hostility toward the news media. And now they converge. An article by Greg Sargent in the Washington Post about another conflict of interest has wrapped inside of […]

From Gallup: Gallup has asked Americans to rate political figures using the current favorable/unfavorable format since 1992. The last three presidents-elect had much higher favorable ratings at comparable time periods than Trump currently does. Then President-elect Barack Obama had the highest favorable rating, 68%, in November 2008. Fifty-nine percent of Americans viewed George W. Bush […]

President-elect Donald Trump has made no secret of his contempt for the press, but his assault on the First Amendment entered a new phase on Monday when he met with executives and journalists from ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox News, and NBC for an off-the-record confab that was described by one participant as “a f*cking firing […]

During the second presidential debate, Donald Trump threatened his opponent Hillary Clinton by saying: “If I win, I am going to instruct my attorney general to get a special prosecutor to look into your situation.” He oversaw rallies at which people chanted “Lock her up!” But now he has agreed not to further pursue investigations […]

One of the exceptions to the Republicans’ series of wins on Election Day was North Carolina governor Pat McCrory. After four years of toxic far-right policy, including severe cutbacks to voting rights, shutting down abortion clinics, and the infamous “bathroom bill” which sparked nationwide boycotts of the state, North Carolinians rejected their Republican governor in favor […]

A Washington Post analysis of President-elect Donald Trump’s financial filings indicate at least 111 Trump companies have done business in 18 countries and territories across South America, Asia, and the Middle East, presenting complex problems for U.S. military and diplomatic strategy. Serious concerns have been raised about potential conflicts of interest regarding the unprecedented circumstance […]

The Northwest Indiana Times reports that Republican State Rep. Curt Nisly has announced he is planning to file “Protection at Conception” legislation when the General Assembly convenes in January. His proposal, if passed by the Republican-controlled state legislature, would “prohibit all abortion in Indiana in all circumstances and authorize the criminal prosecution of any doctor […]

Donald Trump introduced his first 100 days agenda by saying it is “based on a simple core principle — putting America first.” The Anti-Defamation League has urged Trump to stop using “America first” because of its anti-Semitic use preceding WWII, but instead of jettisoning the term, he is now using it to define the “core […]

It should be no surprise that President-elect Donald Trump’s potential appointees are just as reckless and incompetent as he is: Here’s part of the Trump plan for choking immigration. pic.twitter.com/rvEEtIQuIh — Mike Monteiro, cisgender male (@monteiro) November 21, 2016 And just as indecent. Gripped within the hands of Kris Kobach, a frontrunner to serve as […]

President-elect Donald Trump won his electoral victory by virtue of razor-thin leads in a handful of states, with just over 112,000 votes separating him from Hillary Clinton in the three key states that gave him the presidency. Meanwhile, Clinton’s popular vote lead is expected to exceed two million, and currently sits at over 1.5 million. In […]

Election night was a difficult one for Democratic politicians and voters and their vision for the country, and the ensuing days have been filled with worry and fear over the incoming administration’s staffing moves and policy pronouncements. But there is reason to be hopeful. Many Democrats, both current and incoming officeholders, are loudly and forcefully […]

On the same day incoming Chief of Staff Reince Priebus refused to rule out a Muslim registry, Vice President-elect Mike Pence was equally evasive during an interview with Face the Nation’s John Dickerson. Dickerson invoked Senator John McCain’s fervent rejection of the use torture and asked Pence for his reaction. “What I can tell you […]

Donald Trump’s financial conflicts of interest have been well-documented for months. His property holdings in foreign countries create a serious risk that he could manipulate federal law to reduce oversight of his own businesses, offer preferential treatment to foreign states that give him business contracts, or profit from real estate deals with international entities which […]

During an interview with Martha Raddatz on ABC’s This Week, Reince Priebus was asked about the alignment of Donald Trump’s views with the man he has selected as his national security advisor, former Lieutenant General Michael Flynn, who has called Islam “a cancer.” “Is he in line with how President-elect Trump views Islam?” Raddatz asked. […]

I previously warned that Donald Trump was tweeting about Mike Pence attending the musical Hamilton to misdirect attention from a story about foreign dignitaries staying at Trump’s D.C. hotel. That is not to suggest the Hamilton story was not important in and of itself: A president-elect shaming artists for exercising their First Amendment rights is […]

Corey Lewandowski, Donald Trump’s former campaign manager and reportedly a candidate for either a role in the new administration or the chairmanship of the RNC, gave a speech and Q&A session at the Oxford Union which was not well-received. One standout moment came when a young woman cited some of Trump’s campaign promises on which he has […]

In a March 2016 speech at the University of Utah, Mitt Romney spoke out vociferously against Donald Trump: “Donald Trump is a phony, a fraud. His promises are as worthless as a degree from Trump University,” Romney said. “He’s playing the American public for suckers: He gets a free ride to the White House and […]

Encouraged by the response to Donald Trump’s election and the hard-right, white nationalist prospects for his cabinet, many Republican state legislators have begun promoting bills targeting immigrants, minority faiths, and freedom of assembly. In Iowa, Republican Representative Bobby Kaufmann announced plans to introduce what he calls the “suck it up, buttercup” bill when the legislature […]