AdvertisementAdvertisementJeremy Stahl: Hi , Jim. This felt like a story of two conventions to me. The first half was incredibly chintzy, low-rent, and full of too many generic  lines to remember. The last 30–40 minutes or so were about everybody who’s ever worked for or ridden on Amtrak being a close personal friend of Joe Biden, about Bernie Sanders warning that we’re all gonna die if Trump’s reelected, and about Michelle Obama saying roughly the same thing. Basically, the concluding stuff—including Stephen Stills and Billy Porter’s of “For What It’s Worth”—was actually fairly...…AdvertisementAdvertisementJeremy Stahl: Hi , Jim. This felt like a story of two conventions to me. The first half was incredibly chintzy, low-rent, and full of too many generic  lines to remember. The last 30–40 minutes or so were about everybody who’s ever worked for or ridden on Amtrak being a close personal friend of Joe Biden, about Bernie Sanders warning that we’re all gonna die if Trump’s reelected, and about Michelle Obama saying roughly the same thing. Basically, the concluding stuff—including Stephen Stills and Billy Porter’s of “For What It’s Worth”—was actually fairly...WW…

AdvertisementAdvertisementOn Friday, Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial headed toward its close with a perfunctory defense case, followed by questions and answers from Senators for the House managers and defense counsel.The defense team focused its presentation mostly on claiming Trump’s “fight” language was protected First Amendment speech and playing rapid-cut, repetitive videos of Democrats using similarly aggressive political language. The videos, though, of course did not show the Democrats lying incessantly for two months that an election was stolen, assembling a mob within miles...…AdvertisementAdvertisementOn Friday, Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial headed toward its close with a perfunctory defense case, followed by questions and answers from Senators for the House managers and defense counsel.The defense team focused its presentation mostly on claiming Trump’s “fight” language was protected First Amendment speech and playing rapid-cut, repetitive videos of Democrats using similarly aggressive political language. The videos, though, of course did not show the Democrats lying incessantly for two months that an election was stolen, assembling a mob within miles...WW…

AdvertisementAdvertisementFormer President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial was supposed to get underway on Tuesday with dry historical and constitutional arguments about the Senate’s jurisdiction, as the trial addressed Trump’s opening legal argument that the Framers hadn’t intended for impeachment to apply to former officials.The House impeachment managers, led by Rep. Jamie Raskin, eventually laid out the case that history, precedent, and the text of the Constitution all clearly disagreed with the ex-president’s jurisdictional claim—and with the vast majority of Senate Republicans —and...…AdvertisementAdvertisementFormer President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial was supposed to get underway on Tuesday with dry historical and constitutional arguments about the Senate’s jurisdiction, as the trial addressed Trump’s opening legal argument that the Framers hadn’t intended for impeachment to apply to former officials.The House impeachment managers, led by Rep. Jamie Raskin, eventually laid out the case that history, precedent, and the text of the Constitution all clearly disagreed with the ex-president’s jurisdictional claim—and with the vast majority of Senate Republicans —and...WW…

AdvertisementAdvertisementOn Tuesday, President Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial opened with a from the House managers showing why the former president’s actions were worthy of conviction and demonstrating the immediate danger of failing to condemn Trump and ban him from future office. It was a tough act to follow.How did Trump’s legal team— following a falling out with his first team and the refusal of major firms and conservative legal advocates to represent him—do in response?AdvertisementBruce Castor, the former Pennsylvania district attorney who is most famous for having...…AdvertisementAdvertisementOn Tuesday, President Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial opened with a from the House managers showing why the former president’s actions were worthy of conviction and demonstrating the immediate danger of failing to condemn Trump and ban him from future office. It was a tough act to follow.How did Trump’s legal team— following a falling out with his first team and the refusal of major firms and conservative legal advocates to represent him—do in response?AdvertisementBruce Castor, the former Pennsylvania district attorney who is most famous for having...WW…

AdvertisementAdvertisementOn Friday, the Virginia House of Delegates a landmark piece of bipartisan legislation to abolish the death penalty in the state with the most executions in American history. The vote follows passage earlier this week in the state senate. Gov. Ralph Northam has promised to sign the bill, which will make Virginia the 23rd state in the country without a death penalty law on the books.As Cassandra Stubbs, the director of the ACLU’s Capital Punishment Project, told me, Virginia’s move will mark the first time in U.S. history that a have a formal ban on executions,...…AdvertisementAdvertisementOn Friday, the Virginia House of Delegates a landmark piece of bipartisan legislation to abolish the death penalty in the state with the most executions in American history. The vote follows passage earlier this week in the state senate. Gov. Ralph Northam has promised to sign the bill, which will make Virginia the 23rd state in the country without a death penalty law on the books.As Cassandra Stubbs, the director of the ACLU’s Capital Punishment Project, told me, Virginia’s move will mark the first time in U.S. history that a have a formal ban on executions,...WW…

AdvertisementAdvertisementOn Thursday, it was reported that freshman Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene had endorsed a theory that wealthy Jewish bankers had started California’s 2018 Camp Fire by firing a laser from space in order to benefit themselves financially.You can read her Facebook post, uncovered by Media Matters reporter Eric Hananoki, . In it, Greene postulates that the “Vice Chairman of Rothschild Inc, international investment banking firm” may have used “space solar generators … beaming the sun[’]s energy back to Earth” to fire a “laser beam or light beam coming down to Earth” to...…AdvertisementAdvertisementOn Thursday, it was reported that freshman Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene had endorsed a theory that wealthy Jewish bankers had started California’s 2018 Camp Fire by firing a laser from space in order to benefit themselves financially.You can read her Facebook post, uncovered by Media Matters reporter Eric Hananoki, . In it, Greene postulates that the “Vice Chairman of Rothschild Inc, international investment banking firm” may have used “space solar generators … beaming the sun[’]s energy back to Earth” to fire a “laser beam or light beam coming down to Earth” to...WW…

AdvertisementAdvertisementOn Wednesday evening, White House press secretary Jen Psaki delivered her first press briefing of the Biden era. To sum up the social media response to Psaki’s performance, it was viewed widely as delightfully (p)sane.we've had no insults yet. no meltdowns. no smears of the "fake news." — Aaron Rupar (@atrupar)AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementI’m having some difficulty here. I’m not sure which part to clip since no one is holding up paper or yelling at Acosta — Acyn Torabi (@Acyn)Jen Psaki is blowing me away.— Mary L Trump...…AdvertisementAdvertisementOn Wednesday evening, White House press secretary Jen Psaki delivered her first press briefing of the Biden era. To sum up the social media response to Psaki’s performance, it was viewed widely as delightfully (p)sane.we've had no insults yet. no meltdowns. no smears of the "fake news." — Aaron Rupar (@atrupar)AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementI’m having some difficulty here. I’m not sure which part to clip since no one is holding up paper or yelling at Acosta — Acyn Torabi (@Acyn)Jen Psaki is blowing me away.— Mary L Trump...WW…

AdvertisementAdvertisementMomentum for the impeachment of President Donald Trump—which seemed for a moment on Friday afternoon like it might have stalled—received two major end-of-week boosts.First, NBC News that House Judiciary Committee members Jamie Raskin, David Cicilline, and Ted Lieu would be introducing articles of impeachment on Monday, seeking Trump’s removal from office and barring him from further federal elected office for having committed “incitement of insurrection” prior to Wednesday’s mob attack on the Capitol.AdvertisementThose articles accuse Trump of having “made...…AdvertisementAdvertisementMomentum for the impeachment of President Donald Trump—which seemed for a moment on Friday afternoon like it might have stalled—received two major end-of-week boosts.First, NBC News that House Judiciary Committee members Jamie Raskin, David Cicilline, and Ted Lieu would be introducing articles of impeachment on Monday, seeking Trump’s removal from office and barring him from further federal elected office for having committed “incitement of insurrection” prior to Wednesday’s mob attack on the Capitol.AdvertisementThose articles accuse Trump of having “made...WW…

AdvertisementAdvertisementOn Tuesday, Judge Amy Coney Barrett successfully navigated most of the questions at her confirmation hearing with the typical dodges and refusals to answer about pending cases that have long been the standard for nominees before the Senate Judiciary Committee.The fact that she was nominated by an president who engages in patent abuses of power, though, made that dance a bit more complicated.Nowhere was this more evident than during Sen. Cory Booker’s questioning. Booker began easily enough by asking Barrett to condemn white supremacy, which she did. He quickly...…AdvertisementAdvertisementOn Tuesday, Judge Amy Coney Barrett successfully navigated most of the questions at her confirmation hearing with the typical dodges and refusals to answer about pending cases that have long been the standard for nominees before the Senate Judiciary Committee.The fact that she was nominated by an president who engages in patent abuses of power, though, made that dance a bit more complicated.Nowhere was this more evident than during Sen. Cory Booker’s questioning. Booker began easily enough by asking Barrett to condemn white supremacy, which she did. He quickly...WW…

Read our ongoing coverage of Donald Trump’s first criminal trial here. As Michael Cohen wrapped up more than 10 hours of direct examination on Tuesday, the prosecution tried to frame the former Trump fixer’s biggest weakness—his credibility issues—as a strength. Prosecutors confronted him again and again with his past lies—which he now says he told “in order to protect” his former boss, Donald Trump. They preemptively pointed to testimony he had given in Trump’s recent civil trial, which seemed to renounce his previous guilty pleas for tax fraud and false bank statements....…Read our ongoing coverage of Donald Trump’s first criminal trial here. As Michael Cohen wrapped up more than 10 hours of direct examination on Tuesday, the prosecution tried to frame the former Trump fixer’s biggest weakness—his credibility issues—as a strength. Prosecutors confronted him again and again with his past lies—which he now says he told “in order to protect” his former boss, Donald Trump. They preemptively pointed to testimony he had given in Trump’s recent civil trial, which seemed to renounce his previous guilty pleas for tax fraud and false bank statements....WW…