WASHINGTON
Leigh Ann Caldwell
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May 7, 2025
Kamala vs. … Cloobeck?
As the Democrats stumble out of the wilderness, California’s otherwise snoozy governor’s race might provide a test of voters’ patience for their own party’s version of the real estate developer turned reality star turned pol.
Peter Hamby
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May 6, 2025
The Virginia Monologues
A Republican scandal has upended the Virginia governor’s race—but not in the way that anyone expected, with the MAGA base flocking to John Reid, an openly gay Trump supporter, and turning on Glenn Youngkin for trying to push Reid out. “Trump broke the evangelical stuff,” said a campaign operative in Richmond. “There is purity, and there is winning. And they are both drugs, but one of them is a lot more addictive.”
Abby Livingston
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May 5, 2025
All the Oversight We Cannot See
Gerry Connolly’s looming retirement from Oversight has once again set off a leadership scramble: A.O.C. may be out, for now, but the dam has broken for a House Democratic caucus riven by generational change.
Leigh Ann Caldwell
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May 4, 2025
Mike Johnson: Man on Wire
One hundred days into Trump’s term, the speaker faces his greatest test yet: passing the president’s “big, beautiful bill” through a fractured and mutinous conference. “Rarely have the stakes been higher; rarely have the margins been narrower,” said one of his closest confidants. “And rarely has the difference of opinion of where we need to go in the House been starker.”
Julia Ioffe
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May 1, 2025
Trump’s Obama Doctrine
On questions of war, NATO, Russia, Ukraine, and Asia, the worldviews of the 44th and 47th presidents are more similar than either man would like to admit.
Leigh Ann Caldwell
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April 30, 2025
Smiling Through the Trumpocalypse
Senate and House Republicans are determined to stick by the president, even as his poll numbers dip and more Americans start to question his tariffs, deportations, executive orders, and DOGE downsizing.
Peter Hamby
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April 29, 2025
Pete Enters the Manosphere…
Pete Buttigieg boldly went into the kind of space other Democrats have feared to tread—a podcast of guys being dudes—and walked away with a clear W.
Abby Livingston
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April 28, 2025
Jon and the Giant Impeachment
News and notes on the mixed reaction on Capitol Hill to Jon Ossoff’s flirtation with the “I” word. Plus, what Democrats are really saying about Trump’s frontal assault on ActBlue.
Leigh Ann Caldwell
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April 27, 2025
Better Ask Axe
A candid conversation with David Axelrod, the longtime Illinois resident and former Obama strategist, about his state’s shifting politics, Pritzker for president, and the dire need for introspection from the Dems.
Julia Ioffe
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April 24, 2025
Notes on the Rubio Re-Org Scandal
A draft executive order that would have gutted the State Department turned out to be, in Secretary Marco Rubio’s words, “fake news.” But a reorganization is coming, and no one is quite sure what it means.
Leigh Ann Caldwell
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April 23, 2025
Pete Pray Love
News and notes on the internal Capitol Hill conversation about Pete Hegseth’s latest security snafu.
Peter Hamby
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April 22, 2025
The Gulf of Ocasio-Cortez
Recent fawning coverage of the New York congresswoman tends to overlook one pertinent fact: She’s one of the most polarizing and unpopular Democrats in the country, with favorables below even Elon Musk.
Abby Livingston
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April 21, 2025
The Dems Fail to Get the Bag
The party seemed to have renewed pep in its step. Then the Q1 fundraising numbers came in… Donors are still exhausted, exasperated, pissed over Biden, and worse. But the Q2 prospects look better.
Leigh Ann Caldwell
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April 20, 2025
The Jeff Roe Alamo
Roe, the Republican operative who was essentially blacklisted by the Trump White House, has become an unexpected wrinkle in the looming Senate primary between John Cornyn and Ken Paxton—with potential political repercussions bigger than Texas, itself.
John Heilemann
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April 17, 2025
Trump Chaos Theories
A fair and balanced conversation with Wall Street eminence and former “car czar” Steve Rattner about the impact of Trump’s global tariff jihad.
Leigh Ann Caldwell
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April 16, 2025
Trump Gets Ready to… Tax the Rich?
The G.O.P. is contemplating the once unthinkable, at Trump’s suggestion: a higher tax rate on the wealthiest Americans. Backing such a policy would signal a “reality altering” shift for the no-new-taxes party. It would also be among the stranger things to have happened in the increasingly strange Trump era.
Peter Hamby
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April 15, 2025
Trump Plays the Hits, and Takes Some
As voters lose trust in his stewardship of the economy, the president is shifting to the familiar terrain of immigration. The problem for him is that, as fears of recession grow, the issue is tumbling down the list of voters’ concerns.