Election

In the aftermath of the worst debate performance by an incumbent president in American history, the media is already scrambling for a storyline about what went wrong with their chosen candidate. Their frame of argument goes like this: we love Joe Biden, he’s the best, his presidency is an enormous success, but really, someone at the White House should have told us that he was this ludicrously old. How were we to know? Shame on them. This narrative is a blatant lie. The truth is that if the media conglomerates had been honest with the voters a year ago, they would not be in this predicament today, nor would the country be saddled with an mentally addled, barely ambulatory octogenarian as the candidate of the major party media members overwhelmingly support.

It’s almost here... the first presidential debate between President Joe Biden and former president Donald Trump will take place tomorrow night on CNN. It is quite early in the election cycle, which is by design to account for the fact that many voters now cast their ballots via mail or in an early voting period. Perhaps the biggest surprise is that Biden agreed to debate this early, which could signal his campaign’s uneasiness with polls showing the president trailing in most swing states, losing by double digits on the issues that matter most to voters and hemorrhaging support among various key voting blocs, despite what they may say in public (When First Lady Jill Biden was asked about polls showing Biden losing battleground states, she sharply replied, “No, he’s not!

It's been twelve years since the infamous moment when CNN's Candy Crowley interjected herself into the presidential debate between Mitt Romney and Barack Obama, providing a live "fact check" which was, in reality, her factually inaccurate opinion.  The moment was embarrassing enough that debate commission co-chair Frank Fahrenkopf would later describe their selection of Crowley as a moderator as a "mistake"; she was widely criticized for both inserting herself too much into the debate and letting it get out of hand.

Donald Trump spoke at the Faith and Freedom Coalition on Saturday, with a few speakers deeming him “the anointed one.” Trump spoke for approximately one hour and twenty-five minutes. The coalition slotted multiple hype-men right before he appeared, including Republican governor Kristi Noem. The former president hit all his usual talking points — the economy, the border and immigration, Joe Biden, Ukraine, Israel, his cute "tic-tac" trick — and made sure to mention the Ten Commandments, and said, “We answer to God in heaven,” not to political leaders. There were at least two impressive instances in which Trump expertly responded to the inclinations of the crowd.

It was September of 2014 and Republicans were very nervous. A new poll showed Kansas senator Pat Roberts trailing his independent challenger Greg Orman by seven points. The GOP needed a net gain of six seats to win the Senate majority — and the last thing they needed to worry about was Democrats ousting one of their incumbents. The party called in Chris LaCivita, a retired Marine and longtime Republican operative with a reputation for taking no prisoners, to turn the race around. “Months out from Election Day, LaCivita went to the NRSC [National Republican Senatorial Committee] and said, ‘Tell me what I need to know about this race because I’m flying out tomorrow and we’re gonna fuck shit up,’” a GOP consultant recalled.

Cockburn already pre-ordered Ramin Setoodeh’s book, set to be released on June 18. Titled Apprentice in Wonderland: How Donald Trump and Mark Burnett Took America Through the Looking Glass, the book includes some juicy quotations from Donald Trump — specifically his thoughts on Taylor Swift. “I think she’s beautiful — very beautiful! I find her very beautiful,” Trump said. “I think she’s liberal. She probably doesn’t like Trump. I hear she’s very talented. I think she’s very beautiful, actually — unusually beautiful!” This wasn’t the first time the former president has talked about the superstar singer.

The upcoming June 27 presidential debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden will be the first of its kind — a former president debating a current president, with a massive list of subjects to animate the discourse. But there is one topic in particular that moderators Jake Tapper and Dana Bash must bring up if this debate is to have any respectability from the voters: they must confront Joe Biden about his lies in the 2020 debates. These lies have been acknowledged publicly by Tapper at least, and by Bash to a lesser degree.

President Joe Biden spoke in Normandy on the eightieth anniversary of D-Day Thursday — and only slightly made a fool of himself. As he entered the event, it looked as if he entirely missed where he was supposed to sit, but played it off with a nice salute to a veteran. In the middle of a rousing speech, he talked about how many Russians died in Ukraine... for mysterious reasons. He did a bit of a squat in an invisible chair as the speaker Lloyd J. Austin III was introduced. The debacle ended with Dr. Jill Biden leading Joe away as the president of France, Emmanuel Macron, nimbly ran to greet D-Day veterans. And we can’t forget Biden’s subtle double fist pump after the jets flew over the ceremony.

Cockburn was driving down I-95 this weekend when he was suddenly accosted by Donna R., an elderly woman with a Karen-cut and cat-eyed glasses. Donna R. is a Republican, and she had a strong message for Cockburn: “I am a former Trump voter. I won’t vote for a convicted felon.”  Donna R. is just one of several old, white voters starring in billboards paid for by Republican Voters Against Trump, or RVAT, a PAC that was launched in 2020 to ensure Donald Trump would “never hold office again.” But Cockburn can’t help but think the billboard campaign could hurt the cause more than helping.

In the same building where he once descended down a golden elevator and embarked on a campaign that would forever change American politics, this morning Donald Trump lumbered up to the mic in New York City to launch napalm at all his enemies, particularly Judge Juan Merchan, Alvin Bragg and Michael Cohen — who he didn't mention by name, other than calling him a "sleazebag" and saying that he didn't qualify as a "fixer." The idea of a gag order for this man is so ridiculous, I love that they even tried to do it. It was classic Trump: meandering, angry, darkly comic, rhetorical guns blasting away at everyone around him, golden hair blown out and wearing a bright crimson tie as wide as his head.

This is an extremely strange moment for American democracy. Polls suggest that Independent voters — the people who decide American elections — will not vote for a man who is a convicted felon. But now Donald Trump, currently the favorite to win re-election in November, has been found guilty on thirty-four counts of falsifying business records — and nobody knows if that verdict will make him more popular or less. On one hand, Trump has been traduced — thirty-four times over — because a court has decided that, yes, he deliberately altered his financial accounts, possibly for election campaign reasons, back in 2016. He is now a convict. Trump has a murky past. That past has now caught up with him.

Washington, DC WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is a hero to libertarians. As is Ross Ulbricht, the founder of now-defunct Silk Road, an internet marketplace where you could buy lots of shady things. Where some see traitors and criminals, many libertarians see truth-seeking rebels, courageously engaged in a war against Big Government, defying unjust mandates. This was particularly apparent at the 2024 Libertarian National Convention in Washington, DC, this weekend. In an email sent to press by organizers, “Free Ross Ulbricht” and “Free Julian Assange” were ranked the top topics for Donald Trump’s speech Saturday — over “End the Fed" and other popular slogans.

In a desperate attempt to get the attention of young voters, the Biden for President campaign is looking to hire a full-time manager of meme pages for up to $85,000 a year. Job requirements include “deep expertise of the digital media landscape” and the capability to “identify internet trends and/or opportunities for content.” In other words: be good at memes. Though Cockburn wonders whether the move is more innovative or absurd. The political meme game between Biden and Trump up to this point has been both ironic and noteworthy. "Let’s Go Brandon" was countered with "Dark Brandon" — which was also a response to the "dark Trump" meme.