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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
Leigh Ann Caldwell
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November 30, 2025
Jaime Harrison on the Disappearing Rural Democrat
A frank discussion with the onetime Senate candidate and former D.N.C. chair about why he still thinks Democrats can compete in rural America—and what it will take to win back red states.
Leigh Ann Caldwell
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November 23, 2025
The Bros Fade on Trump
A generational civil war has erupted within the MAGA coalition, with some young men gravitating toward extremists like Tucker Carlson and Nick Fuentes, and others abandoning Trumpism entirely. For Democrats, it’s an opportunity to win back disaffected voters who flipped in 2024.
Leigh Ann Caldwell
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November 20, 2025
Big Guthrie Energy
The A.I. gold rush has touched off a mad scramble to produce enough energy—oil, natural gas, coal, solar, wind, geothermal, you name it—to power the thousands of data centers popping up across the country. House Energy and Commerce Chairman Brett Guthrie confronts whether a divided Washington can ever reach a consensus on energy growth before China wins the whole ballgame.
Leigh Ann Caldwell
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November 16, 2025
The G.O.P.’s Epstein Sophie’s Choice
The week ahead is likely to be the hardest for Republicans this session, with a lose-lose proposition on the Epstein vote: Cross Trump, or alienate the base? And then there’s the healthcare conversation they’d much rather avoid…
Leigh Ann Caldwell
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November 12, 2025
Tick, Tick… Schumer
The embattled top Senate Democrat is once again facing calls to step down from leadership.
Leigh Ann Caldwell
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November 9, 2025
Can Democrats Become a Big Tent Party?
After last week, ebullient Democrats gathered in Washington to plot how to instill the lessons of the election: make room for disagreement, run younger candidates, dump the litmus tests, and hammer Trump on affordability.
Leigh Ann Caldwell
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November 5, 2025
Trump’s Nuclear-Option Test
After an election night shellacking, the president is leaning on Senate Republicans to rid him of the meddlesome filibuster—the first real test of G.O.P. unity since Trump’s re-inauguration. Meanwhile, Republicans in competitive districts face a choice before the midterms: Stick with Trump, or start drafting the divorce papers.
Leigh Ann Caldwell
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November 2, 2025
’26-7
Under the stormy skies of Trump 2.0, both parties are limbering up and probing for advantage in a midterm brawl to decide control of the House—a fight neither side can afford to lose. Naturally, strategists on both sides claim the wind is at their backs.
Leigh Ann Caldwell
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October 29, 2025
29 Days Later
News and notes from D.C. as the government shutdown enters a fifth week: a potential way out, the Trump power void, Thune’s false “rifle shot” proposal to force incremental votes, bubbling questions about Schumer, and why some Democrats are eyeing November 21 as their date of maximum leverage.
Leigh Ann Caldwell
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October 26, 2025
Johnson & Thune’s Long Surrender
Nine months into Trump’s second term, the House speaker and Senate majority leader are relinquishing many of their powers to the president. “I think it’s fair to say that most of our leadership class in this country has bent the knee,” one G.O.P. senator told me. But almost no Republicans dare push back in public.