John Heilemann
A bestselling author and former staff writer for New York, The New Yorker, and The Economist, a national affairs analyst for NBC News and MSNBC, and the creator and host of the Emmy-nominated docuseries The Circus, John offers indispensable political reporting and analysis in the Sunday edition of Puck’s The Best & The Brightest.
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Leigh Ann Caldwell, Peter Hamby, Julia Ioffe, Marianna Sotomayor, John Heilemann, & Abby Livingston
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Sunday through Thursday
Puck’s daily political newsletter from Washington—featuring Leigh Ann Caldwell, Peter Hamby, Marianna Sotomayor, Julia Ioffe, John Heilemann, and Abby Livingston—on what’s really happening in this town, from the White House to the Pentagon to Capitol Hill, K Street, the campaign trail, and beyond.
THE LATEST ARTICLES
John Heilemann
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September 10, 2024
Fight Night in Philly & The Morning After
The Harris and Trump war rooms agree that Tuesday night’s debate is a bona fide B.F.D.—with a gargantuan audience and potentially game-changing consequences. But both sides are already looking past what happens in Philly to a handful of critical variables that will shape the campaign’s homestretch.
John Heilemann
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September 5, 2024
No Sleep Till Pennsylvania
A sobering conversation with Dan Pfeiffer, the Obama advisor turned podcaster and polling guru, on whether Democrats are overrating Harris, how Trump could bridge the gender gap, and which states keep him up at night.
John Heilemann
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September 1, 2024
A Biden Retrospective & An Obama Distillation
In a candid conversation, the Times’ Nicholas Kristof diagnoses the Democrats’ Thanksgiving challenge, looks back at the year of magical thinking about Joe Biden, assesses Tim Walz’s talent, and much, much more.
John Heilemann
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August 25, 2024
Kamalot Revisited
Following a convention that was exceptional by every measure—ratings, volunteer sign-ups, fundraising, crowd size—here’s what Democratic operatives and political professionals are saying privately.
John Heilemann
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August 21, 2024
The Brief Return of Obamalot
A convention conversation with political columnist James Bennet about the lasting power of the Obamas, what the G.O.P. has lost with Trump, and whether Kamala can sell America on generational change.
John Heilemann
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August 19, 2024
The Biden-ing of Donald Trump
With the octogenarian incumbent out of the picture, Trump finds himself facing a less forgiving split screen opposite Kamala Harris—and a press corps finally starting to focus on his own cognitive decline. Can Team K turn the tables and do to Trump what Trump and his campaign did to Biden?
John Heilemann
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August 5, 2024
Harris’s Hot Streak & Team K’s To-Do List
With the Democratic convention two weeks out and the Labor Day kickoff of the fall campaign looming, Kamala Harris and her people have a jillion big decisions and tasks to tackle in no time flat. But three items on their punch list matter most of all: map, message, and running mate.
John Heilemann
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July 29, 2024
The Harris Honeymoon & Team K’s Quest to Make It Last
The first week of Kamala Harris’s wholly unexpected, wildly unlikely stint as the de facto Democratic nominee was more smashingly successful than she or her team could have dared to hope or the political class expected. Now comes the hard part.
John Heilemann
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July 22, 2024
After Biden: Pelosi’s Power, Kamala’s Positioning & What’s Next
News, notes, and the four most pressing takeaways on a historic day.
John Heilemann
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July 18, 2024
Trump’s 25 Paths to 270
At a private lunch just outside of the R.N.C., longtime Trump pollster Tony Fabrizio confidently expounded on the campaign’s view that it has myriad—and growing—paths to 270 electoral votes: “We literally stopped counting at 25.”