In This Episode
Trump administration officials confirm that the president is unstable in the New York Times and Bob Woodward’s new book, Kavanaugh struggles under tough questioning from Senate Democrats, and we talk about Ayanna Pressley’s primary upset in Massachusetts, and Colin Allred’s tight race for Congress in Texas. Then Jon Lovett interviews New York gubernatorial candidate Cynthia Nixon about her race against Governor Andrew Cuomo, and the future of the Democratic Party.
Show Notes:
Trump vs. An Anonymous op-ed and Bob Woodward
- New York Times: I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration – Op-Ed
- New York Times: Trump Lashes Out After Reports of ‘Quiet Resistance’ by Staff
- Washington Post: Top appointees are ‘thwarting’ Trump, says ‘senior official’ in administration in New York Times opinion piece
- Washington Post: Anonymous NYT op-ed: Another hostage in the White House comes forward
- Vox: The New York Times’s Trump-bashing op-ed from a senior Trump official, explained
- Politico: ‘It’s open season on the president’: Op-ed unleashes West Wing meltdown
- The Atlantic: This Is a Constitutional Crisis
- The Atlantic: We’re Watching an Antidemocratic Coup Unfold
- Esquire: Just Shut Up and Quit
- Washington Post: Account of friction between Trump and Mattis threatens to undermine their relationship
- Washington Post: Trump suggests libel laws should be changed after uproar over Woodward book
- Washington Post: Amid John McCain’s death and uproar over Bob Woodward book, Lindsey Graham steps forward to defend Trump
- New York Times: 5 Takeaways From Bob Woodward’s Book on the Trump White House
- Vox: Bob Woodward’s Trump book could freak out North Korea
- Vox: Trump just proposed an extremely weird conspiracy theory about Bob Woodward
- The Atlantic: Woodward’s Account of Trump’s Mock Interview With Prosecutors Isn’t Pretty
- Vanity Fair: “EVERYBODY ON THE INSIDE KNOWS IT’S TRUE”: WOODWARD’S REALITY BOMB IS BLOWING UP THE WEST WING
- Slate: The Incapacitated President
- Washington Post: Bob Woodward’s new book reveals a ‘nervous breakdown’ of Trump’s presidency
- Daily Caller: FULL TRANSCRIPT OF TRUMP’S OVAL OFFICE INTERVIEW WITH THE DAILY CALLER
- Washington Post: Trump’s sales pitch to the Daily Caller on his electoral success was used-car-salesman-esque
- The Atlantic: A Daily Caller Editor Wrote for an ‘Alt-Right’ Website Using a Pseudonym
- Salon: Eight of the most outrageous (and unchallenged) claims from Trump’s interview with The Daily Caller
- Politico: Trump kicks Woodward counterattack into high gear
- Politifact: Donald Trump inaccurately describes libel law
- The Atlantic: It’s Time for the Press to Stop Complaining—And to Start Fighting Back
- Washington Post: The New York Times packages old news in an anonymous op-ed – Opinion
- Washington Post: ‘The sleeper cells have awoken’: Trump and aides shaken by ‘resistance’ op-ed
Kavanaugh
- Time: Can President Trump Pardon Himself? Brett Kavanaugh Won’t Say
- New York Times: Kavanaugh Ducks Questions on Presidential Powers and Subpoenas
- Washington Post: Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh won’t commit to removing himself from cases directly affecting Trump
- SCOTUSblog: Will Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearing provide any useful information?
- New York Times: What Kavanaugh’s Hearings Reveal About His Beliefs on Abortion, Guns and Presidential Power
- Wall Street Journal: Little Is Revealed at Kavanaugh Hearing as Pointed Questions Are Ably Parried
- Crooked: A Cheat Sheet for the Kavanaugh Hearing
- The Atlantic: Democrats Are Coming After Kavanaugh on Abortion
- Washington Post: Kavanaugh stumbled over two critical tripwires – Op-Ed
- Vanity Fair: THE DEMOCRATIC ENDGAME IN THE FIGHT TO BLOCK KAVANAUGH
- Slate: Patrick Leahy Points to Email That Suggests Brett Kavanaugh Lied About Receiving Stolen Documents
- Think Progress: Senate Republicans get caught in a major lie about the missing documents on Brett Kavanaugh
- Quartz: Did Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh lie to Congress?
- Daily Beast: Sen. Durbin: Kavanaugh Lied to Me About His Role in Bush’s ‘Enemy Combatant’ Policy
- Washington Post: The Daily 202: Kavanaugh hearing offers an ‘unprecedented’ display of the Senate’s institutional decline
- Mother Jones: How Brett Kavanaugh Made Russian Election Interference Easier and Robert Mueller’s Job Harder
- Esquire: It’s Confirmed: Brett Kavanaugh Eats Pasta with Ketchup Like a Monster
Culture Wars
- BuzzFeed News: An Expanding Front In The Republicans’ Culture Wars: The NFL
- Huffington Post: Trump Says Nike Is ‘Getting Absolutely Killed’ Due To Colin Kaepernick Ad
Candidates – Ayanna Pressley
- Boston Globe: ‘Are you ready to bring change to Washington?’ Pressley stuns Capuano on historic night
- Washington Post: ‘Change can’t wait’: Massachusetts Democrat Michael E. Capuano ousted in primary
- New York Times: Ayanna Pressley Upsets Capuano in Massachusetts House Race
- Boston Globe: Ayanna Pressley’s message may be potent in Democratic Party
- The Atlantic: The Key Lesson of Ayanna Pressley’s Victor
- The Atlantic: Ayanna Pressley’s Win Is the Biggest Upset Yet for Progressives
- Washington Post: Ayanna Pressley’s victory proves it matters to Democratic primary voters ‘who those Democrats are’
- Politico: Why Ayanna Pressley is not Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
- Axios: Ocasio-Cortez praises “sister in service” Ayanna Pressley on win
- Jezebel: Ayanna Pressley Knows She’s ‘Disruptive’
Colin Allred
- Dallas Morning News: How Ted Cruz, Beto O’Rourke and other Texas candidates will kick off the sprint to midterm elections
- New York Times: Democrats Discard Washington Platform in Bid for House Control
- Dallas Morning News: Race between Pete Sessions and Colin Allred could turn on their cultural, generational differences
- Politico: Millennials take on Trump in the midterms
- Politico: Washington’s Most Powerful Anti-Pot Official Is Named Sessions. It’s Not Who You Think.
- Politico: Exclusive: Earmark critic steered cash to blimp research
- Dallas Morning News: GOP’s concern for Pete Sessions’ congressional seat has VP Mike Pence headed to Texas
- Politico: Role reversal: Architect of 2010 GOP House takeover in trouble
Cynthia Nixon
- New York Times: ‘Can You Stop Interrupting?’ ‘Can You Stop Lying?’ Cuomo and Nixon Clash in Debate.
- New York Times: In the Heart of Gentrifying Brooklyn, Nixon Finds Her Audience
- Politico: Months of animosity boil over in Cuomo, Nixon debate
- New York Times: Fact Check on Cuomo-Nixon Debate: Who Stretched the Truth?
- New York Times: Cynthia Nixon Says She Can Win. But Who Are Her Voters?
- New York Times: Cuomo vs. Nixon? He’d Rather Campaign Against Trump
- Washington Post: At Netroots Nation, Democratic White House hopefuls balance messages of unity, rebellion
- The New Yorker: How the Democratic Socialists of America Learned to Love Cynthia Nixon
- New York Times: New York City Is Thriving. Why Is Transport Such a Nightmare? – Opinion
- Newsday: Dem county executives back Cuomo, liberal group endorses Nixon
- New York Times: Cynthia Nixon Thinks You’re Underestimating Her
- The Root: Cynthia Nixon’s Campaign Against White Privilege
- The Nation: Is Cynthia Nixon Ready for the Spotlight?
- The Atlantic: Is the ‘Cynthia Effect’ Real?
- New York Magazine: Cynthia Nixon Has Already Won