Brendan Nyhan

@brendannyhan.bsky.social

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Dartmouth political scientist and Bright Line Watch co-director. Previously Upshot NYT / CJR contributor, Spinsanity co-founder, All the President's Spin co-author.

https://sites.dartmouth.edu/nyhan/
http://brightlinewatch.org

Posts Replies Media

Official act! He took them while in office - is it a crime here?

Democrats: The way Republicans blame uncomfortable realities on media bias is pathological and undermines their ability to grapple with hard truths. Also (many) Democrats: The Joe Biden stories are the media's fault! The NYT is biased against him! etc etc etc

Extremely frustrating to hear legal experts analyzing the SCOTUS ruling on immunity like just another case - it's an inherently normalizing act. People need to stop playing constitutional Calvinball and treat them like political actors.

What I'm thinking about today 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

Refreshing myself on the end of season one of House of the Dragon after the first debate is ... something

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Brendan Nyhan

Mitch McConnell offers an object lesson for all the Republicans who think they can tame this tiger -- even if you do everything in your power to advance Trump's agenda and sabotage two different impeachment trials that would remove him, the Felon Messiah King will still demand your head.

Presidential candidate who the far-right members of the Supreme Court just placed above the law tells voters how he will exercise his new powers.

"over the past 20 years, the Republican-nominated Supreme Court justices who have now given Trump and other presidents a significant measure of immunity from criminal prosecution for their official acts assured Americans that nobody — not even a president — was 'above the law.'"

Analysis | What conservative justices said about immunity — before giving it to Trumpwww.washingtonpost.com Most of them assured Americans that a president isn’t “above the law.” Some went further.

Betting markets already heavily Harris www.realclearpolling.com/betting-odds...

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Brendan Nyhan

I've seen surprisingly little coverage on the fact that, if I understand right, all jousting over an open nomination needs to be done two weeks *before* the convention starts. That, or Dems give up on Ohio (and throw Sen Brown under bus). Am I missing something? www.nytimes.com/2024/05/28/u...

Democrats Adopt Nomination Plan to Allow Biden on the Ohio Ballotwww.nytimes.com Party leaders said they would nominate the president via a virtual roll call of delegates before the national convention, overcoming a glitch that had threatened to keep him off the November ballot.

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Brendan Nyhan

Either the Democrats will run Biden, or he'll say he can't continue the campaign and Democrats will run Harris. Either is newsworthy, but neither is nearly as radical as running a pro-insurrection convicted felon with legal immunity he's eager to use.

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Brendan Nyhan

Presidential candidate who the far-right members of the Supreme Court just placed above the law tells voters how he will exercise his new powers.

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Brendan Nyhan

One thing you can't say about the 6 justice majority is that they can't imagine or think a hypothetical parade of horribles won't happen. That's not this case. The wolf is at the door. The litigant in this case is the person who already was president, attempted a coup and is a career criminal.

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Brendan Nyhan

Aaron Sorkin brain worms

Wild to watch horserace journalists suggest the most politically suicidal shit and pretend it's savvy. www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...

Lots of bizarro world denialism on here about how concerning Biden's state and behavior were. "74 percent of voters view him as too old for the job, up five percentage points since the debate." www.nytimes.com/2024/07/03/u... 74%! 59% among Democrats!

I'm obviously not here to defend the NYT, but this notion that no one in the US knows what to think until the New York Times tells them is just so Bluesky-pilled. I had friends and family who couldn't care less about the NYT texting me during & after the debate like "gah what's wrong with Biden??"

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Brendan Nyhan

While DOJ independence was already a dead letter for purposes of a second Trump term since Attorney General E. Trump or J. Turley or whoever will have been chosen expressly because he's willing to take orders, also worth noting that Roberts blessed POTUS telling AG whom to prosecute.

Presidential candidate who the far-right members of the Supreme Court just placed above the law tells voters how he will exercise his new powers.

"Essentially, the Court in Trump v. United States is declaring the Constitution itself unconstitutional. Instead of properly starting with the Constitution’s text and structure, the Court has ended up repealing them."

i think akhil amar reed captures something very important, which is that the roberts court rewrote article ii, which explicitly states that a president can be held criminally liable after impeachment (and which has long been understood to mean that he can be held liable after leaving office)

Something Has Gone Deeply Wrong at the Supreme Courtwww.theatlantic.com Jurists who preach fidelity to the Constitution are making decisions that flatly contradict our founding document’s text and ideals.

Shouldn't Democrats be pushing Biden to not only step aside from the nomination race but to resign and make Harris POTUS? Helps avoid a messy succession battle and raises her standing/status. (Messy part is getting a VP confirmed; otherwise Johnson is second in line, but you live with it.)

Reminder that even if Democrats drag Biden or someone else over the finish line, the threats to democracy will still remain. One party winning every time is not a plan (nor a democracy). And the president will still have the power to commit crimes with impunity even if the next one doesn't use it.

Amazing. Shoot it into my v̶e̶i̶n̶s̶ shoulder muscle* www.nature.com/articles/d41... *after appropriate regulatory and scientific approvals are completed

Combined COVID-flu vaccines are coming: Moderna jab clears major testwww.nature.com First large trial suggests mRNA drug gives better protection from SARS-CoV-2 and influenza viruses than single-target shots. First large trial suggests mRNA drug gives better protection from SARS-CoV-...

A world where the President can murder their enemies with impunity, direct the DOJ and FBI not to investigate the crimes, and pardon anyone who participates is not a free society www.politico.com/news/2024/07...

The terrifying SEAL Team 6 scenario lurking in the Supreme Court’s immunity rulingwww.politico.com The Supreme Court's immunity ruling this week makes the hypothetical scenario raised during oral arguments — in which a president can't be prosecuted for murder — well, possible.

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Brendan Nyhan

You can have concerns about Biden's age, but still be absolutely appalled about editorial choices that convey the issue as more important than the Supreme Court offering a pre-emptive thumbs up to a criminal presidency

I have been saying since February that major media are 100% devoted to But Her Emails 2, but I didnt imagine it would get this bad. The day after SCOTUS stops the law applying to Trump, we have to scroll thru 4 fucking top stories on “Biden old” & an ad before getting to anything on SCOTUS decision

Reminder that POTUS can direct the DOJ not to prosecute the trigger puller and, failing that, pardon anyone who carries out his order and still faces federal charges. Utterly lawless.

Real news in 2024. Not a drill. www.politico.com/news/2024/07...

Category error watch. People keep assuming legal proceduralism will apply in an authoritarian state.

Real news in 2024. Not a drill. www.politico.com/news/2024/07...

What would you say if you saw it in another country?

Heritage Foundation president celebrates Supreme Court presidential immunity ruling: "We are in the process of the second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be" www.mediamatters.org/project-2025...

Heritage Foundation president celebrates Supreme Court immunity decision: "We are in the process of the second American Revolution"www.mediamatters.org

Two things can be true: 1. The mental acuity of the person with the nuclear codes is a BIG deal. The media should report on it. Full stop. 2. The threat to democracy is also real and the overall balance of coverage must take that context into account.

"It is one thing for an aspiring president to promise lawlessness. The only way to deliver on that promise is with a willing and cooperative court. It appears that Mr. Trump has one."

The more you read yesterday’s immunity decision, the more appalling it gets. My take: www.nytimes.com/2024/07/02/o...

Opinion | The Supreme Court Creates a Lawless Presidencywww.nytimes.com It is increasingly clear that this court sees itself as something other than a participant in our democratic system.

Official act. Immune.

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Reply to

Quinta Jurecic

There's a lot of Bush v Gore energy to the conservative response to the immunity decision. They like the result and just want everyone to skip over how it was reached.