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WASHINGTON

Dr. Jill Biden and Ashley Biden.

Ashley Biden’s Fixer Drama

Jessica Hoy was effectively disavowed by the White House as a formal brand representative for the first daughter. But, as is often the case with the East Wing, it’s not so simple.
Tara Palmeri • May 16, 2023
Tara Palmeri • May 11, 2023
Inside the Trump-CNN Thunderdome
On CNN, it sure looked like Trump won over the crowd during his town hall interview with Kaitlan Collins. But the reality was different in the room—and in the state of New Hampshire.
Julia Ioffe • May 9, 2023
The Debt Ceiling Soap Opera, in Subtitles
Moscow and Beijing have been hard at work spinning the debt ceiling standoff into domestic propaganda.
The Russians and Chinese are loving—just loving—Congress’s latest debt budgetary hostage crisis. But how much can they really leverage it in their long economic war to replace the dollar as the world’s denominator?
Will it be possible for Glenn Youngkin to jump into the race after the midterms and have a successful run?
Tara Palmeri • May 8, 2023
More Youngkinology & Jeff Roe Remorse Theories
A frank, occasionally angry, always insightful dialogue with former congresswoman Barbara Comstock about Youngkin, DeSantis, the Christie suicide-bomber strategy, and the Republican colleagues she left behind.
Tara Palmeri • May 4, 2023
Notes on a Washington Media Scandal
On the return and redemption of T.J. Ducklo.
Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia.
Tara Palmeri • May 4, 2023
No Labels Leaks & Manchin ’24 Dreams
Privately recorded audio from a recent No Labels call reveals a presidential-seeming Manchin, lots of messaging concerns, some strategic concerns, other concerns about concerns, and a wee bit of confusion about the political group facilitating the vox populi’s attempt to steer to the center.
Members and allies of the original Taliban 20 group were particularly energized that McCarthy had adopted anti-“woke and weaponized” budget cuts.
Tina Nguyen • May 3, 2023
Kevin & The 20: A Love-ish Story
As the debt ceiling looms, sources around the so-called Taliban 20 are expressing something unprecedented: admiration and trust that McCarthy, once considered the ultimate RINO, can deliver for them.
Administration officials say that Moscow appears to be in absolutely no mood to negotiate.
Julia Ioffe • May 3, 2023
Inside the Gershkovich Prisoner Swap Crisis
Despite Biden’s public commitment to bring Evan home, the people tasked with making it happen worry privately that Moscow hasn’t made clear what it wants in return for his freedom.
The past weekend was a Politics 101 refresher for the Biden bundling network.
Theodore Schleifer • May 2, 2023
Biden’s $2B Sausage Factory & Three Comma DeSantis Concerns
Behind the scenes, the Biden re-election machine is beginning to fully operationalize its Katzenbergs and Steyers. On the other side of the aisle, Ken Griffin, Peter Thiel, and Robert Bigelow appear at odds. Who wins?
Tara Palmeri • May 1, 2023
Trump’s Fuzzy New Hampshire Math
A candid conversation with Matt Mowers, the former Trump aide turned New Hampshire-and-D.C. political affairs maestro, on Trump’s odds, DeSantis’ stumbles, and Youngkinology.
Tucker Carlson
Tina Nguyen • April 27, 2023
Murmurs from the Tucker Bunker
Carlson’s post-Fox News viral jihad is merely step one in an evolving bow-tied rage campaign that is aimed at the hearts and minds and wallets of the 18-54 online-only MAGA demo.
General Mark A. Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Julia Ioffe • April 26, 2023
The Milley Doctrine
Onboard a flight to Ramstein Air Base, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs shares his “realist” view of war in Ukraine, Russia’s military failures, and the challenges still to come.
Jeffery Katzenberg, a Hollywood mogul with gravitas in fundraising circles from a decade or two in the trenches.
Theodore Schleifer • April 25, 2023
Will Katzenberg Lead Biden’s $2B Machine?
Sure, there is a presidential election to think about… but in the meantime, the biggest race in American politics is for the job of Biden’s national finance chair. And the second biggest? His finance director.
Florida governor Ron DeSantis.
Tara Palmeri • April 20, 2023
The DeSantis Endorsement-ghazi Blame Game
A top DeSantis consigliere is the talk of Tallahassee as yet another group of Florida congressmen has endorsed Trump over their own governor.
Tara Palmeri • April 20, 2023
Bidenland Travelogues: ’24, Jill, Hunter & Kamala
Michael LaRosa, a Biden inner circle denizen, dishes on the re-election, Hunter, the Gavin rumors, DiFi, and more.
The emerging consensus seems to be that Airman Jack Teixeira’s leak, while plenty damaging, could have been far worse.
Julia Ioffe • April 18, 2023
Intelligence Gossip & A Leak Postmortem
Two weeks after a stunning and embarrassing intelligence breach, official Washington is finally coming to terms with the reality of what got out, what might follow, and why this keeps happening.
It appears Ron DeSantis isn’t stopping at abortion as he seeks to remake Florida as the state where “woke goes to die.”
Tara Palmeri • April 17, 2023
DeSantis’s New Donor Defiance
The governor’s allies are brushing off major donors who worry his six-week abortion ban and anything-goes gun laws would be political kryptonite in a general election. Other Florida insiders fear he could lose the state, too.
Rep. Justin Pearson of Memphis acknowledges supporters after being expelled from the state legislature on April 6, 2023 in Nashville, Tennessee.
Baratunde Thurston • April 17, 2023
Civil Unraveling in the Deep South
Reflections from Arkansas on the expulsion of Black legislators, the collapse of bipartisanship, and the possibility of a shared future.