Paul Waldman

@paulwaldman.bsky.social

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Columnist for MSNBC and Heatmap.news. Formerly: Washington Post, The Week, American Prospect. Co-host of the Boundary Issues podcast. Subscribe to The Cross Section: paulwaldman.substack.com

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A few years ago I was on C-SPAN and a caller shouted "Death to the n****r Obama!" So any time I go on and that doesn't happen it's a win. Here's me from today: www.c-span.org/video/?53678...

Washington Journal: Paul Waldman Discusses Campaign 2024www.c-span.org MSNBC and Heatmap News columnist Paul Waldman discusses Campaign 2024 and recent Supreme Court decisions.

Reply to

cats_hell_yeah

That's what gives the show its pop, you never know what kind of nutball is going to call in

I'll be on C-SPAN's "Washington Journal" tomorrow morning from 9:15-10 am, set your DVRs now

Vice President Harris has some weaknesses. But the timing may be better than ever for her to win the White House. I make the case at MSNBC:

Opinion | Why Kamala Harris is a stronger candidate than you thinkwww.msnbc.com Stepping in to save a party in crisis and running against a dangerous GOP nominee may be her straightest path to becoming president

The Supreme Court is not waiting for Donald Trump to destroy democracy. They’re already doing it.

The Attack on Democracy Is Already Underwaypaulwaldman.substack.com The Supreme Court isn't waiting for Donald Trump to destroy the ability of the American people to get what they ask for.

The Onion, 2019

A (not dispositive) reminder about Kamala Harris' electability: Hillary Clinton, who had been subject to an unprecedented decades-long campaign of right-wing vilification, got 3 million more votes than Trump in 2016. Yes, misogyny and racism are powerful. But that's not the end of the story.

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Paul Waldman

I came to my 14 year old with a concern about social media. He literally took his glasses off, rubbed his temples, and asked: “what have the moms on the internet said now?” 😯🫤😆

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Paul Waldman

"Like the Jim Crow-era decisions, the immunity ruling ignores both the plain text of the Constitution and the historical evidence...to embolden those who believe that might makes right." My latest, on Trump v. U.S and the Reconstruction amendments, for MSNBC: www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnb...

Opinion | The Supreme Court’s immunity ruling has a chilling parallel to the Jim Crow erawww.msnbc.com The spirit and reasoning of the majority in Trump v. U.S. evokes the worst of post-Civil War jurisprudence.

Your miserable fact of the day: The last time a Democratic president got to fill the seat of a departing conservative Supreme Court justice was in 1962. (it was Byron White)

Here's a piece I wrote two years ago today, on why we need to declare our independence from the Founding Fathers.

Opinion | This July 4, let’s declare our independence from the Founding Fatherswww.washingtonpost.com Founding Father Fetishism is toxic, and it's keeping us from building the future we need.

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Paul Waldman

"boldly to the right" "nature of politics"

My latest at @heatmap.news , on how aggressive climate action is now woven into the Democratic agenda at all levels. For instance, all the Dem governors mentioned as successors - Whitmer, Newsom, Pritzker, Shapiro - are moving strongly on climate (though Shapiro a little less so).

Does Biden Himself Matter for Climate Policy?heatmap.news Whether he steps aside or not, there’ll be a climate Democrat on the ticket.

We keep talking about Trump ordering Seal Team 6 to kill his rivals. I don't that's how it'll work - too much chain of command involved. He'd rather assemble a small team of loyal military operatives assigned to the White House, who answer only to him, to take such orders. Basically a death squad.

Now you might say "C'mon, you're talking crazy." Maybe. But this ruling is the culmination of everything he's dreamed of his entire life - a license to crime! With all the resources of the US government to enable him to do it! Right now his imagination is running wild.

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B-squad leader

Just him, but I'm sure the court would find ways to bootstrap any of his accomplices into immunity as well.

Remember how Trump said "I have an Article II where I have a right to do whatever I want as president" and every legal scholar said "No you moron, that's not what it says," but now the Supreme Court said "Actually, wouldn't it be cool if he did? Let's do that."

So revealing that the Supreme Court decided that presidents are free to commit crimes on behalf of the president more likely to commit crimes than any other president ever.

One of the cool things about this new Supreme Court ruling is that since you take bribes in exchange for "official acts" pretty much by definition, the president is now free to take bribes! I wonder if that's something Donald Trump might take advantage of.

Pretty clear that the Federalist Society project to take over the courts for the far right is the most successful and consequential political effort in history. Only took them a few decades. Meanwhile, Dems are like "Let's not be hasty, blue slips serve an important function in preserving comity."

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The far-right National Rally leader is unconditionally opposed by French Jewish groups for her party's historic antisemitism. Israel's diaspora affairs minister, however, is 'impressed' by her positions, adding that Netanyahu is seemingly 'of the same opinion' www.haaretz.com/israel-news/...

Diaspora affairs minister Chikli says Le Pen as French president 'excellent for Israel'www.haaretz.com ***

We’re all sorting through our feelings about Joe Biden right now. I’m as uncertain as anyone. This might help.

15 Points and a Question About Joe Bidenpaulwaldman.substack.com Struggling to sort out your feelings about the president? So am I.

I am interested in learning what was going on in these prep sessions. Like, was he just hitting it out of the park, and this came as a complete surprise to his team? Or did they see it coming?

“They were asking why Mr. Klain, the former White House chief of staff who ran the preparations, would in their view allow him to be overloaded with statistics…”

Reply to

Annaleigh Watts 🌹 🪶 🇲🇽 🇵🇸

I'm talking about prominent public officials, not regular people. Of course many of them are racist and Islamophobic, but most of the time they try to present it with dog whistles and weasel words. Trump doesn't bother.

Maybe my favorite Trump moment from the debate. Why won't Biden acknowledge the heroism of The Certain Dog? Does The Certain Dog mean nothing to these libs???

This is one of the most consequential Supreme Court decisions in history and 95 percent of Americans will never understand it, they'll just know government can't solve problems and everything will get worse. Which of course will lead to more votes for, yes, Republicans.

Nobody is prepared for this jolt to the legal system. The Supreme Court has shifted an unfathomable amount of power from Congress and the executive brach toward unelected, unaccountable federal judges. This will fundamentally alter how government works. slate.com/news-and-pol...

Thinking about how Trump said about Biden, "He's become like a Palestinian" with disgust in his voice. Good reminder that he's just an unadorned, crude racist of the kind you don't see much in public life these days.

My debate response for @heatmap.news : There was actually a question about climate change! And what ensued was...well...it could have been worse, I guess. But not by much.

Why Our ‘Only Existential Threat’ Got Shortchanged at the Debateheatmap.news If you want to know why voters don’t consider climate change a priority, just look at how it was treated.

When Trump said "I didn't have sex with a porn star" he meant that Stormy Daniels' filmography makes her more of a porn character actor than a true "star" so that's why he wasn't lying, now shut up libs

Still rolling around in my head Trump's response to a climate question by saying that when he was president, "We had H2O"