On Tuesday, Jamie Raskin buried his son.
On Wednesday, he and his daughter fled the Capitol rampage.
On Thursday, he prepared articles of impeachment against the president.
I called him last night to talk about all of it:
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Vivek Ramaswamy was not misquoted in my story. Here is the unedited audio and a transcript of our exchange about 9/11 and January 6:
I asked Joe Biden to talk about the way he talks, which is also the way I talk
Dennis Kucinich, RFK Jr.'s campaign manager, did not particularly enjoy our conversation theatlantic.com/politics/archi
Copy editors are truly incredible. They don't receive (nor seek) attention. They don't win awards, yet they've made every award-winning text you've ever read sound at least 50% sharper, better, cleaner, clearer, smoother, and smarter. They do this every day.
Biden is about to give the biggest speech of his life. You may notice him stutter on certain words or sounds. You may feel uncomfortable as you watch.
Many people who stutter go their whole lives and never step up to a microphone.
How did a city as dense as San Francisco keep COVID-19 under control?
The mayor didn’t wait. She anticipated.
Must-read from
Was the recall necessary? No
But did we learn some valuable lessons about the 2022 and 2024 elections? Also no
Anyone else just constantly thinking about the second wave of this in the fall?
Good morning from Moynihan where the delays keep rolling in and people keep having nowhere to sit
I wrote about Brayden Harrington, whose stutter and poise took the air out of American living rooms tonight:
"Yesterday is a hard word for me" sounds like a Dashboard Confessional lyric
This is what stutterers face every day. I’m in awe of Brayden’s courage and resolve. theatlantic.com/politics/archi
.: "Instead of talking about automation, I should have been talking about a pandemic." theatlantic.com/politics/archi via
This used to be my nightmare. In some ways it still is. Fuck it. Should be on around 9:40.
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Replying to @SRuhle
Tune in to my show this morning in @MSNBC - @JohnGHendy joins me to talk about his piece. You don’t want to miss this
A good way to prove something is overblown is to tweet about it from your hospital bed
Literally can't think of anything that would ostracize Sanders's supporters more than the DNC stepping in right now to preemptively shut it all down
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Rep. Clyburn on NPR just now: "I think when the night is over, Joe Biden will be the prohibitive favorite to win the Democratic nomination... If the night ends the way it has begun" it's time to "shut this primary down," meaning the DNC should "step in" and cancel future debates.
I've never read a better summation of modern American capitalism:
"It was aggregated into larger holdings, then aggregated again, eventually attracting the interest of Wall Street." theatlantic.com/magazine/archi via
Big: According to Congressional procedure, if Lee and Tillis aren't physically present to achieve a quorum, Democrats could boycott the Amy Coney Barrett hearing and block the vote.
More: theatlantic.com/politics/archi via
This is a wild story: A COVID long-hauler's brain is now littered with tiny lesions causing all sorts of neurological issues, including a stutter he never had before
Is Putin afraid of humor?
“Very much so,” Zelensky said.
This conversation between Zelensky, , and is unlike any other I've read:
You can draw a straight line from Charlottesville, the event that catalyzed Biden's decision to run one final time, to the events of today
Cheers to Brayden for stuttering before an audience of millions. Notice how he struggles for breaths here. Stuttering takes so much air out of you. You may hear Biden struggle to breathe a bit this way later.
We’re all dealing with a lot right now, but rest easy knowing you are not one of 12 senators worshipping an aspiring dictator who used to sell shitty steaks exclusively at the Sharper Image
The president's chief of staff has leverage over his boss: If fired and shamed, he might talk theatlantic.com/politics/archi via and
Shout out to Marlee Matlin, who threatened to walk away from CODA unless the producers cast other deaf actors in deaf roles
Some gun control activists believe it's time to release mass-shooting crime scene photos that are historically hidden from public view
It's an agonizing decision for parents theatlantic.com/politics/archi
I never really wrote (or even spoke) about my stutter until I interviewed Biden last fall. And I never expected stutterers all over the world to send me letters about their own lifelong struggles with this disorder. I’m deeply humbled and grateful to work with on this:
Trump's Election Eve rallies feature a montage of Biden's verbal stumbles.
Thinking today about the stutterers—plural—who have confided in me that their feelings of shame and inadequacy once brought them to the brink of suicide.
My Uncle Ric was one of the 1,993 Americans who died of COVID over the weekend. He contracted it inside an assisted living facility. They moved him to the COVID wing, and he died alone.
The pandemic is about to get worse. Just try to be human about it: theatlantic.com/health/archive
Trump’s lying has taken on a new form in this 60 minutes interview.
He doesn’t really fight to convince.
He just instinctively, half-heartedly says the opposite of whatever is true. Then it’s on to the next.
New York -- the entire STATE -- has only 3,186 ICU beds.
We have over 600 documented cases in New York as of today.
Stay home. Stay home. Stay home. nytimes.com/2020/03/15/nyr
For the past 4 years, I've wanted someone to ask Trump very basic U.S. history questions
What were the Articles of Confederation?
Who were our allies in World War 2?
What did Ben Franklin do?
[every day leading up to November 3]
The Media: "We will not know anything on Election Night. We must psychologically prepare now."
[November 4]
"Why the hell is this taking so long?"
Ta-Nehisi Coates: "The temptation to look away is strong." theatlantic.com/politics/archi
"I don’t think it’s the job of the Democrats to convince Trump voters to vote for them. I think it’s the job of the Democrats to get out those voters who stayed home the last time." in conversation with theatlantic.com/politics/archi
Few writers ever manage to do what has done multiple times: Craft a timeless piece of journalism that readers discover, or return to, across decades.
No better example than The Falling Man:
Replying to
Nobody can force Biden to say "I still stutter." That's his choice, now and forever. But the confusion and mockery we're seeing right now is why people who stutter want him to say it. theatlantic.com/magazine/archi
Biden is speaking at length about stuttering on CNN right now. He’s never done this on such a national televised stage. He’s also stuttering, both intentionally and unintentionally through these answers. Watch it.
I spent nearly 30 years feeling ashamed of the way that I speak. I’m both terrified and honored to share this story in full.
Surreal to say that my book (!) is officially available for preorder:
LIFE ON DELAY
January 17, 2023
(fixed link)
penguinrandomhouse.com/books/670021/l
.: "Two days ago, a man walked through the halls of government bearing the flag of a group of people who had seceded from the United States and gone to war against it. Then, presumably, he walked out..." theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/
Biden appeared to intentionally impersonate a child stutterer just now.
At other points tonight, Biden has slightly stuttered, blocked, or practiced circumlocution (word-switching) himself.
This is like the end of Ferris Bueller when they gun it in reverse hoping to take the mileage off the odometer twitter.com/yashar/status/
This post is unavailable.
"Many of these staffers are people of color, and, especially among the butlers, are more than 50 years old—two qualities associated with higher risk for COVID-19." theatlantic.com/politics/archi via and
. says that across 9 focus groups, only 14 percent of Trump 2020 voters want him to run in 2024. In 4 of the groups, zero people wanted Trump to run.
"Their reasoning is clear: They’re now uncertain that Trump can win again."
Come for the reporting, stay for ’ swift prose, but REALLY stay for the kicker theatlantic.com/politics/archi
The president lost his own brother to alcoholism, and yet he still aimed to smear Joe Biden for Hunter Biden's substance abuse. Everything is about Trump's ego preservation.
Deeply clarifying piece: theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/
Replying to
Biden's stutter is one of the most misunderstood aspects of his life. It's not a cover, nor is it a catch-all for when he gets his facts wrong. It's something far more complicated:
Cheers to Brayden Harrington who continues to speak with poise and grace
As a coping mechanism, I think many people outside of the media and medical communities have simply stopped engaging with the horrors of the pandemic, and the disastrous results are playing out in real time
It's vital for Trump to tell Americans to embrace a fundamental reordering of daily life, at least for a few weeks or months.
He's by no means doing that: theatlantic.com/politics/archi via
Just a devastating paragraph about the long walk of Lindsey Graham theatlantic.com/politics/archi via
Eugene Goodman remains one of the most consequential Americans in our history
The most harrowing detail from my Thursday night interview with Jamie Raskin is cited in the House Judiciary Committee's Impeachment report theatlantic.com/politics/archi
Have gone full Tony Soprano, eating prosciutto with the fridge door ajar
Several months ago asked me to describe the experience of stuttering for a short documentary. This is what I said.....(1/3)
"Before I’m done speaking with them for this story, BTS will have the number-one and number-two songs on the BillboardHot 100..."
Stellar profile of BTS esquire.com/entertainment/
I’m so grateful for today penguinrandomhouse.com/books/670021/l
Millions of dollars and hundreds of polls amount to…voters don’t want their rights taken away
Record number of accounts on here triple-majored in epidemiology, foreign policy, and prestige television
What's lost in conversation about recent events is that the 12 senators ideologically represent a constituency of Americans who have broken with reality theatlantic.com/politics/archi via
I went on 's show last night. I still dread TV and can't sleep for days before an interview. It's hard for me to watch because my stutter is most pronounced in these settings. I do it because people who stutter are usually kept off-air entirely youtube.com/watch?v=grFCSY
"The United States is hoping to vaccinate 50 million people by the end of January, and the actual number vaccinated this winter could be even higher."
Some end-of-year optimism from
"The police and the U.S. military are separate institutions because policing a community and fighting a war are supposed to be separate jobs." theatlantic.com/politics/archi via
"For now, [McCarthy] has won over just enough of his critics, and with it, the speakership. All he had to do was sacrifice power, and no small part of his dignity, to get it." theatlantic.com/politics/archi via
That round of persistent oxygen questions from competing reporters was a masterclass in journalism
Talking with Emma and several other people who stutter was extremely meaningful for me in the reporting process. Hearing from hundreds of people who stutter over the past 24 hours has changed my life.
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I was so happy to be a (small) part of @JohnGHendy's nuanced and demanding profile of Joe Biden -- I think it gets to the heart of what it means to stutter theatlantic.com/magazine/archi
I recently spoke with about cynicism and despair when it comes to American gun violence. Like millions of people, I've had those feelings since Sandy Hook. But wallowing doesn't breed progress:
"Pro-Trump America has decided that vaccine refusal is a statement of identity and a test of loyalty." theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/
Early Thursday morning published Prof. Paul Kellermann's piece positing that Penn State was refusing a vaccine mandate to appease conservatives in the PA state legislature.
Last night, PSU President Eric Barron all but confirmed it: news.psu.edu/story/665967/2
The next several days will be filled with postmortems about the "shocker" among pro-Trump Latinos in Florida
called it last week:
Crazy to think that Warren released her COVID-19 plan in January (before the Iowa caucus) theatlantic.com/politics/archi via
This is exactly what I argued in September: It doesn't matter if Bret Baier and Chris Wallace play it straight. It doesn't matter if the Fox News Decision Desk is rock solid. Fox's commentators control the Fox News narrative theatlantic.com/politics/archi
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Prime time not serving that thesis. twitter.com/NikkiMcR/statu…
I’m at Penn Station waiting for a train to DC. Just walked past a newsstand. Eternally grateful to everyone who has read the story. This has been a lifelong dream.
Replying to
Upside of massive delays: bonus time for the best slice in the city
This trump painting really looks like the haunted painting from Ghostbusters II
My colleague grew up near a Strategic Air Command bomber base.
“In college and graduate school, I was studying Soviet affairs and strategic issues, and gaining all the detail that added a terrible sense of reality to those dreams..." (1/2)
Among other things, this profile of Tucker Carlson features perhaps the best kicker I've read all year theatlantic.com/politics/archi
Big day for citizens of Jim Thorpe, PA
Here's a sentence: "In 2016, Donald Trump won 76 percent of counties that had a Cracker Barrel, and only 22 percent of counties that had a Whole Foods."
To paraphrase Michael Jordan: Republicans stutter, too
You'd be amazed at the Trump supporters who have emailed me over the past 2 years to tell me they've been dismayed at attacks on Biden's stutter