Aman Batheja
Senior Political Editor at TIME Magazine. Background in economics and TX politics. Formerly New York Times, Texas Tribune. Dad. #washingtondc @nytimes.com
Signal: @amanbatheja.46
- Reposted by Aman BathejaThis is just awful news. Patrick is one of the best reporters out there, and we relied on his work constantly, including his reporting for the Texas Tribune before he went to WaPo. We would hire him if only we could. x.com/PatrickSvite...
- "Le is a novice prosecutor who was only assigned to Minneapolis last month. She is already listed as government counsel on more than 80 habeas corpus petitions filed by immigrants. She told U.S. District Judge Jerry Blackwell...she was so overwhelmed that she already attempted to quit."
- "As Harry Dunn watches footage of federal immigration officers in Minneapolis, he can’t help but be reminded of the mob he battled at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021." Former Capitol Police Officer running for Congress links Jan. 6 rioters to ICE agents
- Ron Charles' Books Club newsletter is fantastic. Going to miss seeing it pop up in my inbox
- My heart breaks at the end of the Books section at the Post. So many brilliant people there, especially @roncharles.bsky.social, the most beloved book critic I know. I feel like I should write more about this, but I’m on deadline and trying to finish a freelance piece myself.
- Reposted by Aman BathejaMy heart breaks at the end of the Books section at the Post. So many brilliant people there, especially @roncharles.bsky.social, the most beloved book critic I know. I feel like I should write more about this, but I’m on deadline and trying to finish a freelance piece myself.
- Border Czar Tom Homan just announced he's pulling 700 immigration agents from Minneapolis effective immediately
- This @restofworld.org interview with an immigration lawyer on what it takes to get an H-1B visa in Trump’s America is fascinating. Learned a lot! restofworld.org/2026/get-h-1...
- Reposted by Aman BathejaFor more than 60 years, newborns in the US have routinely received vitamin K injections to prevent potentially life-threatening bleeding. These aren't vaccines, but they are getting swept up in anti-vaccine sentiment, doctors told me, and more parents are rejecting them.
- “She asked one of the agents why he was filming the arrest. ‘It’s not going to be on Twitter,’ the agent assured her….But soon after her arrest, an image of Ms. Levy Armstrong was on Twitter.”
- Reposted by Aman BathejaHouse floor drama… Republicans currently lack the votes to pass this rule to bring up gov’t funding bill. Every Dem is present and has voted NO. Two Rs have voted NO — they only have a 1-vote margin. One of the NOs is John Rose, who is worked up about SAVE Act. Vote held open.
- New: Did Trump break the Kennedy Center? His announcement to close it for two years came with no warning to the Kennedy Center’s staff, leaving bookings and major events like the Kennedy Center Honors in limbo . And he's hinting that he might gut the entire building
- Trump claims the Kennedy Center is in disrepair, despite a $250 million expansion being completed in 2019...during Trump's first term. Few in Washington believe this has anything to do with the state of the building itself time.com/7364727/dona...
- Reposted by Aman BathejaDC neighbors - you helped @51st.news hire our first full-time reporter last year. He's covered local DC for more than a decade. Want to ask him anything?
- Pretty excited for this: I'm doing an AMA over on the D.C. subreddit on Tuesday afternoon! (It's a great community, so very excited about.) So jump on over and ask any questions about D.C. politics, nerdy government stuff, pro cycling, whatever. www.reddit.com/r/washington...
- This story gets weirder and funnier with every sentence
- From this story: www.nytimes.com/2026/02/01/n...
- Related: Is there a song whose listening experience has changed more radically over the years than “Monster”?
- Reposted by Aman BathejaLeigh Wambsganns devoted her professional life to Trump and his movement. On Friday, he seemed to reward her loyalty by endorsing her campaign for Texas senate. But after she lost a safe GOP seat by double digits, Trump says he’s never heard of her: “What can I say? I have nothing to do with it.”
- “The partial government shutdown that began early Saturday morning is on track to continue at least into Tuesday” “The Tuesday plan remains tentative as GOP leaders scramble to navigate tensions inside their own conference, which could make passing the procedural measure difficult”
- Reposted by Aman BathejaWSJ: “.. The deal marked something unprecedented in American politics: a foreign government official taking a major ownership stake in an incoming U.S. president's company." @wsj.com www.wsj.com/politics/pol...
- Stunning outcome in Texas last night that's got Republicans in a panic: In a special election for a solidly red Texas state senate district, Democrat Taylor Rehmet beat the Republican by 15 points. Trump won the district by 17 points
- “The Democrat’s lead came hours after a midday Truth Social post by Trump encouraged Tarrant residents to vote for Wambsganss. Wambsganss received the president’s endorsement during the summer and campaigned as “ultra-MAGA.”
- I covered Tarrant County closely for years. It has long been seen as the ultimate bellwether for Texas politically. As I wrote in 2013: “Tarrant County is both the largest reliably Republican county in Texas and ground zero for Democrats’ efforts to turn the state blue.”
- A partial government shutdown will start at 12:01 a.m. Members of both parties are saying it will very likely be over sometime Monday.
- Variety: Amazon Blocks Mainstream Press From Watching ‘Melania’ Documentary at Kennedy Center
- “Turns out, all Ms. Minaj got was a gold-colored card bearing Mr. Trump’s face. A White House official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to describe the gift, said the gold card was simply a ‘memento’ rather than a ‘visa document.’”
- Some really interesting results in this Texas Public Opinion Research poll about the Texas Senate Democrats Primary between James Talarico and Jasmine Crockett
- New: With a possible second shutdown in four months approaching, Democrats are still debating the wisdom of the last one. Shutdown backers point out it energized the base + GOP took more of the blame. Detractors note Democrats got nothing concrete out of it—the subsidies are now gone
- New: Democrats Reveal Their 3 Demands to Avoid a Shutdown time.com/7358586/gove...
- Reposted by Aman BathejaTrump’s fundraisers are now using the threat of dispatching ICE against citizens as an email engagement tactic.
- "Shouts of joy echoed on the fourth floor of Middle Collegiate Church as news reached churchgoers that a judge had decided to free fellow parishioner Allan Marrero from immigration detention on Tuesday." documentedny.com/2026/01/27/a...
- New: The third “No Kings” protest is scheduled for Saturday, March 28. Organizers expect millions to turn out, more than the last one. The flagship protest will be in Minnesota time.com/7358310/no-k...
- “The federal response in Minnesota is partly why the next ‘No Kings’ protest is not for another two months, and will look markedly different from the last two—not in message, but in an unprecedented level of preparation for safety and security, organizers say. “
- A eulogy from Alex Pretti's childhood friend: "He told me the truth about Santa, and I told him the truth about where babies come from...There is something destabilizing about having known someone only as a child and then hearing they were gunned down in the street."
- Trump’s latest comments on guns (“You can’t walk in with guns”) echo his reaction after Parkland in 2018. In a crazy public meeting, he abruptly called for national background checks and red flag laws. “I like taking the guns early. Take the guns first, go through due process second,” Trump said.
- Democrats were giddy. Republicans were horrified. None of it really went anywhere.
- Calls for an international boycott of the World Cup in the U.S. are growing. Said one former FIFA official to fans: “You’ll see it better on TV anyway.”
- Reposted by Aman BathejaOn Thin ICE in Minneapolis: How Trump’s Immigration Crackdown Sparked a Crisis of Trust #MinnesotaStrong #Minnesota time.com/7358027/ice-...
- CNN: “The Department of Homeland Security has suspended border patrol official Gregory Bovino’s access to his social media accounts effective immediately, according to a source familiar with the matter.”
- New: ICE is now an agency in crisis, as many now see it as operating recklessly and far outside law enforcement norms. How did it get there? time.com/7358027/ice-...
- “To put officers in the field more quickly, ICE shortened training from 13 weeks to six weeks. ICE also waived its long-standing age limit for agents, accepting new agents as young as 18 and older than 40.” time.com/7358027/ice-...
- Good look at how some of the images going viral of Alex Pretti's shooting are ‘AI-enhanced.’ "Most of these “AI-enhanced” images are based on a single frame from a real video of the shooting" www.bbc.com/news/live/c8...
- The current view of Democrats' chances of taking back the Senate, based on "conversations with about two dozen strategists, lobbyists, donors, and Hill staffers": There's a narrow but plausible path for Republicans to lose even the upper chamber in a wave election time.com/7357434/demo...
- New: How would a partial government shutdown over ICE impact ICE? Potentially not much, as Republicans approved a massive $75 billion funding surge for ICE last year which it could tap amid a shutdown time.com/7357762/gove...
- Reposted by Aman BathejaFrom former Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson, author of Texas' Concealed Handgun Law: I carry a handgun. Am I a domestic terrorist? www.houstonchronicle.com/opinion/outl...
- CNN: “The stock market in President Donald Trump’s first year back in the White House was the weakest of any president’s first year of a new term since 2005, when George W. Bush started his second term.”
- I was a reporter in Texas for 15 years. I regularly covered events where multiple attendees were carrying guns—legally—including more than a dozen Tea Party protests. If a Democrat made this argument, the howling outrage from Texas statewides would be loud enough to hear from space
- Horrifying report out of Iran: "As many as 30,000 people could have been killed in the streets of Iran on Jan. 8 and 9 alone, two senior officials of the country’s Ministry of Health told TIME...So many people were slaughtered...it overwhelmed the state’s capacity to dispose of the dead."
- Reposted by Aman BathejaSen. Dick Durbin, another one of the 8 Democratic YES votes on Nov funding bill, is a NO on this DHS measure: “I will not vote to fund the illegal DHS and ICE operations that terrorize Chicago, Minneapolis, and many other communities.” This bill doesn’t have the votes.
- 8 Senate Democrats joined Republicans to reopen the government in November. At least 3—Catherine Cortez Masto, Jacky Rosen, and Tim Kaine—say they won’t support the bill funding DHS (and, by extension, ICE) that must pass this week to avoid a shutdown
- “The family first learned of the shooting when they were called by an Associated Press reporter. They watched the video and said the man killed appeared to be their son.”
- Essential reporting here from @startribune.com journalists who are posting live updates from the scene of the shooting. Law enforcement are trying to subdue protesters with tear gas (no paywall!) www.startribune.com/ice-raids-mi...
- “The man fatally shot by federal officers in Minneapolis this morning has been identified as Alex Jeffrey Pretti, according to sources familiar with the investigation. Pretti, 37, has an address listed in south Minneapolis.”
- "Transportation Sec. Sean Duffy is pushing to host an IndyCar race on the National Mall in August...There’s only one problem: Congress has to approve legislation to make it happen...because there’s a ban on advertising on the Capitol grounds. IndyCar vehicles are famously adorned with lots of ads"
- “ByteDance will keep TikTok’s coveted algorithm, which it will license to the new U.S. entity. “That arrangement may fall short of the 2024 law, which required the divestment to end any ‘operational relationship’ between ByteDance and TikTok in the United States”
- Reposted by Aman BathejaTrump: Bush invoked Insurrection Act 22 times. Actually 2 times. Trump: Secured $18T in investments. His own White House puts it at $9.6T. Trump: Drug prices coming down 600%. Not mathematically possible. @qiu examines a year of falsehoods. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/20/u...
- “The seven House Democrats who ultimately voted for the DHS spending bill were Henry Cuellar of Texas Don Davis of North Carolina Laura Gillen of New York Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington Jared Golden of Maine Vicente Gonzalez of Texas and Tom Suozzi of New York.“ time.com/7357264/ice-...
- “At 28th and Blaisdell, a Minnesota @StarTribune photographer captured a close-up of federal agents spraying an irritant in a person’s face” www.startribune.com/border-patro...
- Big Guardian scoop: Before the US military snatched Nicolás Maduro, “Delcy Rodríguez and her powerful brother pledged to cooperate with the Trump administration once the strongman was gone, four sources involved at high levels with the discussions told the Guardian”
- Insane that this is Delroy Lindo’s first Oscar nomination
- “‘What has haunted me ever since is that, as we were leaving, the woman told us: ‘Have a great day.’” “As soon as they left, they were handed over to two ICE agents.”
- "When asked whether the agreement involved the U.S. gaining ownership of Greenland, an outcome he has repeatedly framed as essential to national security, Trump paused before replying, 'Uhh… it’s a long-term deal.'"
- "How worried am I about what ICE will do to those who oppose its tactics? Enough that I considered whether I should publish this story anonymously."
