Only One Republican Is Holding This Many Town Halls

Even as most congressional Republicans are avoiding their constituents, one has demonstrated an exceptional commitment to engaging with voters in the flesh: 61-year-old Mark Alford of Missouri held not one but 15 public events across his district this week, including five town halls. The second-term lawmaker is not an otherwise noteworthy member of Congress. He represents a safe Republican district, and has voted along party lines 89 percent of the time, according to Heritage Action. But in a moment when so few Republicans are making an effort to hear from…

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Fast Times at Immigration and Customs Enforcement

In a video produced by the Department of Homeland Security this month, two tricked-out ICE vehicles roll around on the National Mall to “Toes” by rapper DaBaby: “My heart so cold I think I’m done with ice (uh, brr) / Said if I leave her, she gon’ die / Well … you done with life.” The vehicles feature a new ICE logo and DEFEND THE HOMELAND in block letters, painted in a color scheme similar to the president’s private plane. The Lincoln Memorial zips by and DaBaby continues: “Better not…

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Nobody Likes John Bolton

This morning, Donald Trump claimed he knew nothing about the raid on the Maryland home of his former National Security Adviser John Bolton. “I’m not a fan of John Bolton,” Trump said, calling him a “lowlife.” In that respect he agrees with many Democrats: After Trump fired Bolton, in 2019, Representative Adam Schiff of California (now a senator) said that one “should question John Bolton’s patriotism,” and Representative Nancy Pelosi called him a “disgrace.” In January, Trump pulled Bolton’s security detail, which had been in place due to credible threats…

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The Democrats’ Biggest Senate Recruits Have One Thing in Common

When news broke this week that Sherrod Brown would run next year to reclaim a Senate seat in Ohio, Democrats cheered the reports as a huge coup. Before losing a reelection bid last year, Brown had been the last Democrat to win statewide office in a state that has veered sharply to the right over the past decade. His entry instantly transforms the Ohio race from a distant dream to a plausible pickup opportunity for the party. If most Democrats were ecstatic about Brown’s planned comeback bid, Amanda Litman was…

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The Damage to Economic Data May Already Be Done

This article was featured in the One Story to Read Today newsletter. Sign up for it here. If you have been closely following the ongoing Bureau of Labor Statistics story—in which Donald Trump fired then-Commissioner Erika McEntarfer after being displeased by the bureau’s July jobs report and selected the Heritage Foundation economist E. J. Antoni to succeed her—you will have heard an unusual consensus about the airtight political independence of the agency and the people who work there. Among BLS employees, including former Commissioner William Beach, whom Trump appointed in…

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Trump Invites Putin to Step Foot in America

Vladimir Putin is coming to America, despite the international warrant for the Russian president’s arrest, despite his years of hostile threats against NATO, and despite him showing no remorse for his invasion of a sovereign nation. None of that matters to President Donald Trump, who announced Friday night that he would meet the globally shunned leader this Friday in Alaska. What does matter to Trump is that he may be able to stop the bloodshed in Ukraine, the worst European conflict since World War II, fulfilling one of his biggest…

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