Where Things Stand: Trump Reignites War On Civil Servants

President Trump has had an issue with career professionals since he took office.

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Quick Take

This debate went like how I expected the first debate to go: Biden better on the merits but both guys playing to their preferred ways of speaking to the public, their core audiences. Trump wasn't out of control like he was in the first debate. I thought he might be just as feral; but he wasn't. I got that wrong. But that's a crazy standard. In...

21h

The Last Clash Debate Blogging

9:31 PM: Still claiming he's under audit. 9:25 PM: For the first fifteen minutes Trump did a pretty good job being relatively normal and non-feral. But then after about 15 minutes in the feral-o-meter started to tick up minute by minute. 9:24 PM: Trump on Fauci: "I think he's a Democrat but that's okay." 8:58 PM: I realize...

22h

Don’t Study Court Reform To Death

Kicking an issue to a fancy commission is a notorious method for taking it off the table and putting it out of play with little political cost. That can be handy! But if you want the issue in play, Joe Biden’s plan for a blue ribbon commission on reforming the federal courts is a bad sign of where he’s headed. Note the time frame: 180 days. So the...

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Where Things Stand: Closing Arguments

Tonight, the candidates will make their closing arguments. But it will likely be a far-cry from the professional demeanor of attorneys making their final cases in the court room.

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Face Off at the Last Chance Corral

Ever since the debacle of the first presidential debate we've been hearing that President Trump has to be nicer in the next face off and let Joe Biden (or even just the moderator) talk. Numerous articles in recent days purport to quote top Trump advisors saying this, demanding this. I have no doubt they're saying this and may even believe it. But it...

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Not Over Till It’s Over

Two points on the latest polls. The first is that President Trump does appear to have regained a small measure of support in recent days – very small and it still leaves him in landslide loss territory but it seems to show up as some real movement. At the same time, I keep seeing polls in which the “likely voter” screen shows a slightly better result...

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Where Things Stand: They’re Really Sticking With The ‘Anarchist Cities’ Thing

Yesterday, President Trump tweeted a disingenuous rallying cry to residents of states like New York, California and Illinois -- messaging that won't do much for him in the relatively blue states that are home to some of country's largest deep blue cities.

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Trump Preps His COVID Stab-in-the-Back Storyline

We are rightly focusing on President Trump last night telling rally goers he'd never be in their dump of a town if the election weren't going so badly for him. But let's not miss the more important and lasting part of this message. President Trump is already previewing one explanation and justification for his defeat: COVID. He was cruising toward reelection,...

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What’s It Mean?

Tierney Sneed on the Supreme Court’s alarming handling of a key Pennsylvania voting law case last night

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