WASHINGTON
Abby Livingston
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September 4, 2025
Democrats’ Midterm Fog of War
Until recently, conventional wisdom held that Democrats would almost certainly retake the House in 2026. Now, amid the political wreckage of the redistricting arms race, they’re no longer so sure.
Leigh Ann Caldwell
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September 3, 2025
Thune’s Pocket Rocket
Republicans are lurching toward an explosive showdown with Democrats, the public, and each other over the president’s so-called pocket rescissions. How the Senate majority leader handles the blowback, and a looming government shutdown, could impact the midterms and the future of Congress itself.
Peter Hamby & John Heilemann
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September 2, 2025
Trump’s Crime Wave & A ’28 Trojan Horse
The president’s vow to send National Guard troops into blue cities beyond D.C. has Democrats on the back foot, even as Gavin and JB (and Wes Moore, and Josh Shapiro…) are jockeying for position as the face of the resistance.
Julia Ioffe
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August 28, 2025
Anchorage Away
U.S.-Russia relations are largely unchanged, and the future of Ukraine is just as uncertain, following the Trump-Putin photo op in Alaska. Meanwhile, among the Russian elite, there is an obvious eagerness to get the “Ukrainian crisis” over with so they can get back to the real business of making money.
Leigh Ann Caldwell
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August 27, 2025
The Trump Socialist Experiment
Starting on the other side of Labor Day, Congress will be tasked with confronting the president’s increasingly alarming socialist experiment. Will Republicans blink on making the Fed an extension of the White House? Is Intel just the first shoe to drop?
John Heilemann
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August 26, 2025
The James Talarico Experience
A wide-ranging conversation with the Texas state rep on his party’s flight from Texas, the value of being in the political wilderness, and his own Senate ambitions.
Abby Livingston
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August 25, 2025
Red Light Redistricting
A scintillating conversation with redistricting wiz Dave Wasserman of the Cook Political Report on the fate of the current mid-decade arms race and its effects on the midterms and beyond.
Leigh Ann Caldwell
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August 24, 2025
The Incredible Shrinking Freedom Caucus
The bare-knuckled Republican brawlers who once struck fear and trembling inside the House have become sidelined during the second Trump administration. Now, increasingly, they’re showing themselves out.
Julia Ioffe
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August 21, 2025
Getting to Nyet
In recent days, Trump and his team have announced a series of breakthroughs in Russia-Ukraine negotiations, only to find out they’ve misunderstood the Russian position. Now it seems the only security guarantees Ukraine will get are none at all.
Leigh Ann Caldwell
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August 20, 2025
Trump Turns the Screws on Indiana
With California preparing to neutralize the Texas gerrymander, the White House is ramping up its pressure campaign in Indiana, where few Republicans want to redistrict—but even fewer want to make enemies of President Trump.
John Heilemann
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August 19, 2025
Gavin’s ’28 Gamble: Gerrymandering Edition
A timely conversation with Obama comms guru and Pod Save America co-host Dan Pfeiffer about Gavin Newsom’s redistricting gambit, what Dems can learn from Zohran Mamdani, and the party’s broken messaging machine.
Abby Livingston
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August 18, 2025
Golden State Warriors
As the gerrymandering battle shifts to the West Coast, two fading California political heavyweights, Nancy Pelosi and Kevin McCarthy, are being drawn back into the ring for another round.
Julia Ioffe & Ian Krietzberg
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August 17, 2025
Mr. Altman Goes to Washington
A candid conversation about what it means to potentially introduce novel A.I. tools across the federal government, what’s in it for the U.S. taxpayer, and, of course, the long game for Sam Altman and OpenAI.
Julia Ioffe
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August 14, 2025
Anchorage Man
Putin is swaggering into his meeting with Trump, brimming with arrogance as state propaganda hammers the idea that Russia is on the cusp of victory. As one person close to Putin told me, however, there’s a case for cautious optimism that the summit in Alaska could be the beginning of the war’s end.
John Heilemann
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August 12, 2025
Trump Term-Limit Fears & Lingering Epstein Anxieties
In a recent conversation, California congressman and rising Democratic star Robert Garcia sounded the alarm on gerrymandering, discussed the need to keep Epstein front and center, and placed rectitude aside in favor of #RealTalk.
Abby Livingston
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August 11, 2025
Epstein Recess Theories
Republicans fled D.C. early for August recess to avoid votes on releasing the Epstein files. But the issue has been waiting for at least some of them in their home districts—and will be unavoidable when they return to town in September.
Leigh Ann Caldwell
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August 10, 2025
John Cornyn’s Moment of Truth
The Cornyn campaign is at a critical juncture as the Texas senator falls behind A.G. Ken Paxton in the state’s Republican primary, hurting his chances at clinching an endorsement from Trump. But Paxton may actually need Cornyn to improve in the polls to keep other challengers at bay…