Chris Brennan

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Chris Brennan

@bychrisbrennan.bsky.social

National columnist for USA Today, covering people, power and politics in the 2024 election. Tell me a story: [email protected].
https://www.usatoday.com/staff/72269205007/chris-brennan/
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U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, who dismissed Donald Trump's documents case Monday, is likely to face some judgment about her judgment. We've been here before. It didn't go so well for Cannon. My USA Today column: www.usatoday.com/story/opinio...
The Florida judge who just gave Trump a pass in documents case will now be judged herselfwww.usatoday.com U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon's ruling has nothing to do with the merits of Trump's classified documents case.
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Joe Biden and Donald Trump are calling for unity. They sound like they're speaking to us from America's past, from a time when politicians had lively disagreements but didn't reflexively disparage anyone who disagreed with their politics. My USA Today column: www.usatoday.com/story/opinio...
Republican reaction to Trump shooting only sows more division. Our leaders must stop it.www.usatoday.com Violence is not new in American politics. But there is a dangerous political rhetoric that Republicans and Democrats need to leave behind.
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Fair warning: If you ask me to kick in to your Spotify party playlist but then complain about the picks we will go next to Tiny Tim covering The Doors “People are Strange.” open.spotify.com/track/3ffkoX...
People Are Strangeopen.spotify.com Listen to People Are Strange on Spotify. Tiny Tim · Song · 2006.
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Joe Biden is asking supporters for the kind of pass Donald Trump gets from his fans. The problem: Democrats these days hold their candidates far more accountable than Republicans. That's an advantage Trump created with a willing GOP. My USA Today column: www.usatoday.com/story/opinio...
Republicans give Trump a pass on accountability. Biden needs that from Democrats.www.usatoday.com Democrats, you are now the party that needs to forgive your candidate's issues if you want to win.
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Joe Biden has maybe a week to save his political life. Maybe less. That's high stakes and a short timeline for the 81-year-old president. But Biden put himself in this precarious position. We must know – and soon – where he goes next. My USA Today column: www.usatoday.com/story/opinio...
Biden is running out of time to fix his campaign. What happens next will decide things.www.usatoday.com Democratic declarations about Biden are being closely scrutinized as more and more allies sound open to the idea of his departure from the race.
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Joe Biden desperately needed something to change the conversation after his calamitous debate performance. Yo, Joe, send those Supreme Court justices a gift basket or something. You know Clarence Thomas isn't turning away free stuff. My USA Today column: www.usatoday.com/story/opinio...
The Supreme Court just did Biden a huge favor by giving Trump immunitywww.usatoday.com Clearly President Biden had a bad debate night. But the Supreme Court gave him a possible way out.
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There was a time, not so long ago, when a criminal conviction meant serious trouble for anyone involved in politics. That time is over. Steve Bannon, Donald Trump's former campaign and White House aide, is proof as he heads to prison. My USA Today column: www.usatoday.com/story/opinio...
Steve Bannon is heading to prison, ending his failed attempt to escape consequenceswww.usatoday.com Remember law-and-order Republicans? Those days are over too. At least for now.
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Donald Trump hates mail ballots. But his campaign wants supporters to use them. That's why his campaign went berserk when a super PAC accurately quoted him on the issue, a blunder that drew WAY more attention to a tiny digital ad buy. My USA Today column: www.usatoday.com/story/opinio...
Trump campaign should've just ignored this ad on his mail-in ballot flip-flop. Oops.www.usatoday.com There is a good chance this small political ad would have just gone away without much attention. Trump's campaign made sure that didn't happen.
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Win a debate in five easy steps: 1. Demand a debate 2. Accept invitation/rules to debate 3. Claim the debate is rigged 4. Have supporters kvetch about debate 5. Declare victory (no matter what happens)
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Joe Biden and Donald Trump spent the weekend very differently. Biden prepped while Trump preened. We’ll know Thursday after their first debate which one made the most of their time. But Trump's script is now sounding road-weary. MY USA Today column. www.usatoday.com/story/opinio...
Trump spent the weekend lying. Biden prepped. Thursday's debate will be interesting.www.usatoday.com How Donald Trump and President Joe Biden prepared differently for their Thursday face-off, the first 2024 presidential debate. Will it repeat 2020?
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Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry is eager to be sued for forcing the Ten Commandments into public school classrooms because that will boost his national profile with a potential Supreme Court test case to roll back our religious freedoms. My USA Today column: www.usatoday.com/story/opinio...
Louisiana law isn't about Ten Commandments. It's Christian nationalist bait for Supreme Court.www.usatoday.com Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry is basically daring somebody to sue him over the Ten Commandments law. That might be coming.
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RNC Chair Lara Trump's tour touting "election integrity" would sound far more reasonable – laudable, even – if her father-in-law hadn't spent the last eight years lying about elections because he just couldn’t accept how people voted. My USA Today column: www.usatoday.com/story/opinio...
Trump's daughter-in-law vows to 'protect the vote.' He tried to steal the 2020 election.www.usatoday.com Donald Trump won't admit he lost fair and square in 2020. So he just keeps lying about it.
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Voters should consider inflation when voting for president. That should come from a clear-eyed view of the economy in real time, not a Cheesecake Factory menu from Thanksgiving 2023, as the super PAC MAGA Inc. did this week to knock Biden for Trump. My USA column: www.usatoday.com/story/opinio...
Trump allies attack Biden on inflation with an old Cheesecake Factory menu. No, seriously.www.usatoday.com I noticed that Republicans are using Cheesecake Factory menu prices to score political points on inflation. Turns out it doesn't add up.
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Republicans in Congress amplify Donald Trump's lies about rigged elections while touting budget cuts to eliminate grants for election security and administration. They don't buy their own claims and won't pay for efficient elections. My USA Today column: www.usatoday.com/story/opinio...
Republicans wail about secure elections while slashing funding for election securitywww.usatoday.com Old Republican slogan: 'The election is rigged!' Revised for 2024? 'The election is rigged ... and we won't pay to secure it!'
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Ever read a novel that so frequently mentions a food from your childhood that you’re left with no other choice but to head the supermarket to buy some? Can you guess what novel I recently finished?
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The Trump campaign sent a Black member of the U.S. House from Texas to stump for Black votes... in an overwhelmingly white Northeast Philly neighborhood Tuesday. Mostly white faces packed a room with "Black Americans for Trump" signs. My USA Today column: www.usatoday.com/story/opinio...
Why did Trump start Black voter outreach in a white Philly ZIP code? They wouldn't say.www.usatoday.com I asked a Trump surrogate about choosing the wrong part of Philly to reach Black voters. I got no answers.
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We’ve seen the calamity Trump created when he lost in 2020. We saw Republicans denounce him for the the 2021 insurrection... before they came crawling back to him. And now Trump and his allies like Speaker Mike Johnson are at it again. My USA Today column: www.usatoday.com/story/opinio...
Trump ramps up violent rhetoric after guilty verdict – and GOP just keep ignoring itwww.usatoday.com Have you noticed that Trump is ramping up his threats and suggestions of violence now that he's a convicted felon?
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Next to my table on the deck Danny Buoys pub in Grace Bay, Turks & Caicos. #flyeaglesfly🦅
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For Donald Trump, every old grievance is new again. And nothing sticks in his craw quite like Obamacare. But Obamacare is very popular with voters, except for Republicans. So Trump is only playing to his base when he attacks it. My USA Today column: www.usatoday.com/story/opinio...
Trump keeps trying to kill Obamacare. The problem? Voters love health care.www.usatoday.com Trump's obsession with Obamacare is an exploitable weakness – and Biden looks to make the most of it.
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Three of Courtney Kramer's former bosses, including former President Donald Trump, were indicted for trying to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia. Now she's running to oust the prosecutor. She can't win. But that's not the point. My USA Today column: www.usatoday.com/story/opinio...
This former Trump intern has no chance of being the Fulton County DA. But she has to try.www.usatoday.com Courtney Kramer won't win the election. But she likely will keep defending Trump.
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Donald Trump vowed to testify in his own defense in his New York criminal cast. But when the time came, he didn't take the stand. His defense rested without a word from him under oath. That's his right, of course, but not what he claimed he'd do in court. www.usatoday.com/story/opinio...
Will Trump testify? History shows us he is his own worst enemy under oath.www.usatoday.com There are few reasons for Donald Trump to testify in this case. His history on the witness stand hasn't been good.
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The vaccines from Operation Warp Speed were a major accomplishment that Donald Trump now has to keep quiet about as Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who Trump derides as “not really an anti-vaxxer,” chips away at the MAGA base. My USA Today column: www.usatoday.com/story/opinio...
Trump has to disavow his COVID vaccine to keep voters from RFK Jr. and his anti-vax cloutwww.usatoday.com Have you noticed that we rarely hear Trump brag anymore about his administration's achievement with the vaccines?
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Donald Trump has said he would testify. That's a risk he can't take. He'll stay off the stand and then try to claim that he was somehow silenced. Trump sees little risk in lying about this sort of stuff, as long as he's not under oath. My USA Today column: www.usatoday.com/story/opinio...
Will Trump testify? History shows us he is his own worst enemy under oath.www.usatoday.com There are few reasons for Donald Trump to testify in this case. His history on the witness stand hasn't been good.
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Joe Biden and Donald Trump are debating about debates again. And for good reasons that have nothing to do with debates. Biden has bad news on swing-state polling. Trump is still losing votes to Nikki Haley. They need some distraction. My USA Today column: www.usatoday.com/story/opinio...
News of Biden and Trump debating is the distraction both candidates desperately neededwww.usatoday.com It would appear that the presidential debates between Joe Biden and Donald Trump are going to happen. Brace yourselves.
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Mike Johnson owed Donald Trump. So this week he touted two of Trump's favorite culture-war tropes – xenophobia about immigration and an alternative-facts version of how Trump lost the popular vote in 2016 and the presidency in 2020. My USA Today column: www.usatoday.com/story/opinio...
Noncitizens can't vote in federal elections. Trump and the GOP hope you don't know that.www.usatoday.com This new Republican effort ignores that not everyone who is eligible to vote has access to the documents needed to establish their identity.
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Donald Trump and the RNC, after years of trying to demonize mail ballots, now want to make it sound somehow corrupt to keep counting them after Election Day. That could disenfranchise millions of voters. That's why they're doing it. My USA Today column: www.usatoday.com/story/opinio...
Trump and the RNC want slow counting of mail ballots to target Biden supporterswww.usatoday.com Donald Trump and the Republican National Committee are attacking mail-in ballots across the country. They know it hurts Biden.
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Conventional wisdom: RFK Jr. is a spoiler, helping Trump. Trump's recent thinking: RFK Jr. is a spoiler, helping Biden. RFK Jr.'s new claim: Biden is the real spoiler and should get out of his way. The absurd apex of that entitlement. My USA Today column: www.usatoday.com/story/opinio...
RFK Jr.'s enormous sense of entitlement prompts call for Biden to drop out of the racewww.usatoday.com Robert F. Kennedy Jr. keeps saying he's not a spoiler during this presidential election. Everybody knows that he is, but will he help Trump or Biden?
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Donald Trump's next contempt of court transgression must sting more than a four-figure fine for a billionaire politician who raises millions from his supporters by playing victim to being held accountable. Jail him. My USA Today column: www.usatoday.com/story/opinio...
Trump is likely to violate his gag order again. Jail him if he does.www.usatoday.com We know from his recent civil court defeats that Trump doesn't learn much of a lesson about contempt on his first or second try.