Politics Features

Maybe you thought that as time went on, the Democratic Party debates would become less chaotic, and easier to follow. Fooled you! Chapter four in the series of Democratic Party debates begins tonight in Westerville, Ohio, on the Otterbein University campus, and instead of ten candidates onstage, which has been …

The third Democratic presidential debate in Houston delivered. The diverse field — narrowed to the top 10 candidates, all sharing the same stage — engaged in a spirited disagreement about Medicare for All, grappled with the party’s (and Barack Obama’s) record on immigration and deportation, as well as shared personal …

It’s quiet in the morning. The remains of a campfire smoulder beside the railroad; fog hangs low in narrow valleys people here call hollers; a bedsheet strung between the poles of an overturned tent flutters in the breeze. The bedsheet reads, “NO PAY WE STAY.” It’s day 38 of a …

Maybe Joe Biden has been in politics too long. When he finally announced his run this week, he found he’d outlived the campaign cliché that once would have carried him to the White House: “electability.” After his launch, it seemed like the press didn’t know whether to describe Biden as …

For the sake of American democracy, and the public’s faith in our justice system, the full, final report produced by Special Counsel Robert Mueller must be made public. Immediately. Sunday’s slender, four-page memo to Congress by Attorney General William Barr was wildly inadequate. Claiming that the special counsel had not …

When President Trump signed the FIRST STEP Act last December — the first major federal criminal justice reform legislation in the past eight years — he wanted credit. He chose to take it in the form of Matthew Charles. By inviting the newly released Tennessee man to February’s State of …

Editor’s note: This interview was conducted in January, several weeks before Rep. Ilhan Omar wrote, in a since-deleted tweet, that House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s threat to punish herself and Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib for their criticism of Israel was “all about the Benjamins baby.” Omar publicly apologized for the …

This is the second dispatch in a series from Jeff Goodell, who will be investigating the effect of climate change on Thwaites glacier. January 30th, 10 a.m. Technology won’t save us from climate change, but it might help us understand the risks we face on a superheated planet. Case in …

Bad news for anyone who had hopes of enjoying a few rancor-free months of 2019 before the presidential-election insanity begins. Not only is the race fully on, we’re already in our third or fourth toxic electoral narrative — the most recent involving that most infamous campaign cliché, “electability.” The target …

Like so many in the wake of the 2016 election, journalist Ben Bradlee Jr. wanted to know what the hell just happened. So he spent the next 14 months of his life traveling back and forth to interview the people of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, which, he argues, proved to be …