Daniel DePetris

Day 2 of the Democratic presidential debates was a touch feistier than day 1, likely because the heavy hitters shared the same stage. Former Vice President Joe Biden, Sen. Bernie Sanders, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, and Sen. Kamala Harris, the four top contenders in the large field of 20-something candidates, were all front-and-centre hoping for a breakout moment. The rest of the candidates, including Eric 'I’m a young guy' Swalwell and Marianne 'I have a screw loose' Williamson, just took up air. As the indisputable front-runner, Joe Biden knew he was going to be the punching bag for everybody else.

Notepads out, pencils in-hand, and water at the ready, a pack of Democratic presidential candidates did battle last night in the first nationally televised debate of the primary. There were no mentions of little hands, no personal insults, and not much entertainment (Donald Trump after all wasn’t part of the show), but there were plenty of generalities, talking points, and soliloquies. The two-hour debate was quite frankly a boring affair, with the more low-profile, desperate candidates trying to get the attention of the moderators like an elementary school student tries to impress the teacher. There was Elizabeth Warren at centre stage, the professor with a plan for every single problem America faces.

Joe Biden may have the nickname 'Middle-Class Joe' but in truth, the former vice president is a career politician. He was elected to the Senate in 1972 at the ripe age of 29 and kept his seat for 36 years until he decided to gamble on Barack Obama’s presidential campaign by joining his ticket. With eight years as VP experience under his belt, Biden wants the top job for himself more than ever (he previously ran for president in 1988 and 2008, but both of his campaigns quickly floundered). Typically, career politicians are like robots. They read the talking points their staffers write, stick to the teleprompter during speeches, and focus group their messages. Biden, however, is the politician who often goes off script (much like Donald Trump) and says what is on his mind.

Donald Trump is at his best when he’s campaigning. The man loves the limelight, the massive rallies in 20,000-seat arenas broadcasted in real time by Fox News, and the accolades, applause, and chants from his red-hatted disciples. Trump won the 2016 election by letting his force of personality take over the campaign and riding on the exhaustion of the Clinton political brand. 2020, however, is not 2016. Trump can claim to be an outsider populist all he wants, but the 'drain the swamp' mantra doesn’t have the same allure when you’ve been in the middle of the swamp for the last three years.

America’s last presidential election campaign won't be easily forgotten. From leaked Access Hollywood tapes and spurious insults between the two contenders to incessant chants of “lock her up!”, Clinton vs Trump was something Americans simply hadn’t experienced before. It was ugly. But the 2016 election may turn out to be a walk in the park compared to the 2020 election—particularly if Joe Biden is the Democratic presidential nominee.   Of all the Democrats running for president today, Trump clearly sees Biden as the biggest threat to a second term.

The last time president Donald Trump flew to London, pandemonium ensued. A visit that was supposed to be ordinary turned out to be extraordinary. Thousands of Londoners protested the president’s arrival, launching a big baby Trump balloon into the air (which predictably captured the thin-skinned president’s attention). Trump took to the pages of the Sun and trashed Theresa May’s negotiating ability, explaining that the PM didn’t listen to his advice on how to get the best Brexit terms for the UK. To top it all off, Trump went on to laud Boris Johnson as someone who would “make a great prime minister”—a remark that came at a particularly acrimonious time in May’s tenure with her political career at stake.

You won’t find a more committed and passionate opponent of president Donald Trump in Washington, D.C. than Nancy Pelosi (witness yesterday’s blowup at the White House, in which the president walked out of a meeting on infrastructure over Pelosi’s earlier comments about a Trump-ordered coverup).   The two-time Speaker of the House and long-time politician from liberal San Francisco is the opposite of the president in many ways. Whereas Trump takes pride in being the bull in the china shop, Pelosi is a highly-calculating politician who thinks long and hard before she settles on a course of action.

President Donald Trump likes to talk. He’s a typical New York blowhard in many ways—obnoxious, loud, self-confident (probably too confident), and not very self-aware. His favourite topic of discussion is the 2016 presidential election and how he shocked the planet by pulling perhaps the biggest upset in modern American political history.   That victory, however, rested on thin reeds. Trump actually received more than 2.5 million fewer votes than Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, yet won the election thanks to the Electoral College.

Is the United States, the oldest democracy in the world, bumbling into a constitutional crisis of its own making?  Like most things in life, it depends on where you sit. For the Democratic Party, the answer is somewhere between a “we are getting there” and a “yes, we are living it.”  Donald Trump is not only violating the traditional norms of the presidency, but is taking a sledgehammer to the walls of America’s constitutional republic in order to protect himself from political embarrassment, scandal, and possible legal jeopardy after he vacates the office.

The Europeans always held an inkling that sooner or later, a time would come when an impatient Washington would announce to the world that any country or entity buying or dealing with Iranian crude oil would be kicked out of the US financial system. The threat of US sanctions hung in the air like a Sword of Damocles, a warning to governments in Europe and Asia to tread lightly.   And, sure enough, the Trump administration’s patience has finally run. On April 22, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo walked up to the State Department podium and announced that Washington would no longer tolerate overseas purchases of Tehran’s crude. “Today I am announcing that we will no longer grant any exemptions,” Pompeo said.

The old dog has announced. And he is in it to win it. After endless rumours about whether he will throw his hat into the ring for one last campaign, former vice president Joe Biden officially declared his presidential candidacy this morning with the customary video.  The supporters who have been chanting “Run Joe, Run!” for years will be pleased that the personable veep is giving it one last try before retiring from politics altogether. Others, like the loud progressive movement that is increasingly steering the Democratic party, are vowing to tank Biden’s nomination bid as a matter of principle.

Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s redacted, public report is nearly a week old, but the Democratic Party in Washington is still trying to figure out what to do. Adam Schiff, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee and one of president Donald Trump’s most committed opponents in Congress, summed up the Democrats’ dilemma during a Sunday morning television interview. “I think what we are going to have to decide as a caucus is, what is the best thing for the country,” the California congressman said.  That’s politician-speak for “we have no clue what to do with this 448-page tome. We’re still knocking our heads together and looking into it. Ask us in a few more weeks.

When little known California congressman Eric Swalwell announced his decision to seek the Democratic presidential nomination this month, the former county prosecutor became the 18th Democratic candidate to enter the race. There are so many Democrats running for president of the United States that it’s becoming tiresome to track them all. Most—like Swalwell, Maryland congressman John Delaney, Hawaii congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, author Marianne Williamson, and businessman Andrew Yang—have about as much of a chance winning the Democratic party nomination as Huddersfield do of becoming Premier League champions.

We always knew the full 400-page report from Special Counsel Robert Mueller probing possible Trump campaign collusion with Russia during the 2016 election would be a lot dicier for the president than Attorney General William Barr’s four-page summary. Barr’s letter to Congress, released earlier this month, was in many ways his own interpretation of Mueller’s investigation. And in the AG’s own telling, Trump was free and clear: no collusion with the Russians and no actions which would rise to the standard of an obstruction of justice offence. Trump, who has called the entire 22-month Mueller inquiry a hoax, witch-hunt, and con-job from the very first day Mueller was appointed, declared a “complete and total exoneration.

Washington, DC is a town full of tradition. There’s the State of the Union address at the beginning of the year and the cherry blossom festival in March and April, when tourists around the world descend on the nation’s capital. There’s the ritualistic glad-handing, ego-stroking, and gossip-milling. And, of course, there’s the never-ending infatuation with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization—the transatlantic security body that helped keep Europe whole, free, and at peace during the Cold War. The Soviet menace, however, has been dead and buried for close to 30 years. Ever since that infamous day in 1989, when the world woke up to the news that the Soviet machine was tumbling down, Nato has struggled to justify its existence.