Steve Benen
Rachel Maddow Show producer, MaddowBlog author, MS NOW contributor, and author of Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past
- Seven months ago, Trump said that the New START treaty is “not an agreement you want expiring,” adding that it would be “a big problem for the world.” Yesterday, it expired. www.ms.now/rachel-maddo...
- When assessing personnel, Trump keeps emphasizing one thing: whether or not they meet his expectations for “central casting”: tinyurl.com/4vxf3bsa It’s quite creepy.
- Schumer and Jeffries present their list to Republican leaders, "laying out clear legislative actions to rein in ICE and stop the violence." They also called for "fully ramping down the surge in Minnesota and removing Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem from her position."
- One of the things about the Gabbard/DNI/whistleblower story that I keep thinking about: May 2025: whistleblower accuses Gabbard of wrongdoing in a report filed with the inspector general's office June 2025: Gabbard starts politicizing the inspector general’s office www.ms.now/rachel-maddo...
- Republicans apparently want to focus on Obama-era deportations. This isn't smart. Obama showed that it was possible to focus on deportations without terrorizing communities and sparking a national backlash. Team Trump should stop referencing Obama’s policy and start emulating it.
- It’s easy to forget the degree to which Speaker Mike Johnson is a died-in-the-wool, knee-jerk election denier who touts genuinely bonkers ideas, indifferent to their ridiculousness. We’re not just talking about a few election-administration concerns; we’re talking about brazen nonsense.
- Last week: Trump praises Putin for pausing attacks in Ukraine, even as Putin launches additional attacks in Ukraine. This week: Trump *again* praises Putin for pausing attacks in Ukraine, even as Putin launches *even more* attacks in Ukraine. www.ms.now/rachel-maddo...
- Four weeks ago: Trump floated the idea of canceling future elections Three weeks ago: “When you think of it, we shouldn’t even have an election” Yesterday: “The Republicans ought to nationalize the voting” But it’s not just rhetoric: all of this has come against a backdrop of concrete action.
- With Tulsi Gabbard spending months trying to bolster Trump’s 2020 conspiracy theory, while also trying and failing to discredit Trump’s Russia scandal, I’m genuinely curious: Who’s done the job of the DNI? www.ms.now/rachel-maddo...
