Section: The Atlantic (USA)
Stop the Impeachment-Polling Madness
In a representative democracy, the will of the people always counts. Though elected officials are not obliged to vote in accordance with the will of their constituents, they are obliged to elicit and understand the opinions and circumstances of those whose best interest they serve. As for whether that necessitates incessant public-opinion polls...
Trump’s Defense Against Subpoenas Makes No Legal Sense
Perhaps nothing can convince Republican senators to convict President Donald Trump, but on Friday, as Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren deftly explained why Trump’s blanket defiance of every House subpoena and request for witnesses was an impeachable obstruction of Congress, the mood in the room noticeably shifted. I had the good fortune to be...
The New Question Hanging Over the Impeachment Trial
In the clattering corridors of the Capitol today, the hunt for the startling fact that could change the arc of the impeachment story was on in earnest, but Senator John Kennedy, Republican of Louisiana, wasn’t much help. A clutch of reporters surrounded him at around noon, asking whether he believed John Bolton’s assertion in a...
The Atlantic Politics Daily: What John Bolton Says He Knows
It’s Monday, January 27. The Trump administration is working on an expanded travel ban, now eyeing African immigrants. And today, the Supreme Court issued an order allowing the administration to impose restrictions on immigrants it considers more likely to rely on federal aid.An outpouring followed Kobe Bryant’s death: Here’s...
John Bolton Knows What He’s Doing
John Bolton, Donald Trump’s former national security adviser, announced the title of his forthcoming memoir last night: The Room Where It Happened, a reference to the Oval Office, the scene of some of the misdeeds he is likely to attribute to the president. (I had hoped for something jauntier, perhaps ‘Stached in the Cabinet.)...
C-SPAN Is So Hot Right Now
People across America turn to it regularly. It’s getting lovingly roasted on late-night television. It’s going viral on YouTube with sizzling footage of Jerry Nadler talking two decades ago.C-SPAN is so hot right now. And that’s a symptom of something gone deeply wrong.The fact that so many people want to watch Congress’s...
The Utter Ridiculousness of the U.S. Senate
On the second day of President Donald Trump’s Senate impeachment trial, Chief Justice John Roberts told a joke—though not intentionally. Presiding over the trial, the chief justice had seen the House impeachment manager, Representative Jerry Nadler, snipe at the president’s defense team over the falsehoods the president’s...
This Is a Trial of the Constitution Itself
The Senate impeachment trial of President Donald Trump has begun. Senators now face the monumental question of whether to remove the president from office—and yet, something bigger is at stake here. The Constitution’s fundamental design is on trial too.This is clear from the articles of impeachment themselves. Start with the first article,...
Why Journalists Believe Mary Louise Kelly
Yesterday Secretary of State Mike Pompeo bungled an interview with NPR’s Mary Louise Kelly and stormed out rather than answer her last questions. (You can listen to their exchange here.) Then Pompeo’s aide made one of the most desirable entreaties a journalist ever hears after an interview: Would Kelly speak to the secretary again,...
Kafka on the Hill
Friday, as Democratic managers prepared their final day of impeachment arguments in the Senate, reports of a new recording began to emerge. According to the reports, Igor Fruman—a former associate of Rudy Giuliani who is now under federal indictment—recorded a conversation with President Donald Trump in April 2018, in which Trump said that he...
