Outside the Beltway

The Trump Administration continues to drive a wedge between the United States and Europe, can it ever be repaired?

The shooter who killed five people in a factory in Illinois on Friday should not have had a gun to begin with.

The Supreme Court will hear a case dealing with a challenge to the Commerce Department’s decision to put a question about citizenship on the 2020 Census.

The NYT has a useful classification of previous declarations (which does show the odd nature of Trump’s wall declaration).

Saturday Night Live mocked the President’s declaration of a ‘national emergency,” which caused him to lash out on Twitter.

Patrick Caddell, who helped Jimmy Carter win the Democratic nomination and White House in 1976, has died at the age of 68.

Two months after being named, Heather Nauert withdrew her name as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations due to a ‘Nannygate’ problem.

There is a bit of a disjuncture between the terminology and the reality (but that does not excuse Trump’s current actions).

Levitsky and Ziblatt on emergency powers.

Some thoughts on the current mess.

Faced with a field that could be more crowded than the Republican field in 2016, Democrats have come up with a different solution to the rather obvious problem of debate scheduling.

Supreme Court watcher Jeffrey Toobin speculates that Clarence Thomas could be the next Supreme Court Justice to step aside.

Former Massachusetts Governor Bill Weld is preparing for a primary challenge against Donald Trump. He won’t win, but he could still have an impact.

President Trump declared a national emergency at the southern border while at the same time undercutting his own case for doing so.

Thanks mostly to political opposition that misrepresented the nature of the deal it had made, Amazon has abandoned plans to locate parts of its new headquarters in New York City.

President Trump’s impending decision to declare a national emergency to get funding for his border wall will quickly face serious legal challenges. It may be more vulnerable than the White House suspects.

The President will sign the bill to fund the government and avert another government shutdown, but in doing so he’ll also lay the groundwork for another showdown with Congress.

William Barr was easily confirmed as Attorney General in a 54-45 votes that included three Democrats crossing over to support him.

A Federal Judge found that former Trump Campaign Manager Paul Manafort lied repeatedly after entering into a plea agreement with Special Counsel Robert Mueller. This either makes him incredibly stupid or willing to sacrifice himself to hide the truth from Federal investigators.

The former #2 official at the FBI is trying to sell a book.

In a rare display of assertiveness in the foreign policy arena, the House voted yesterday to bar U.S. assistance in Saudi Arabia’s genocidal war on Yemen.

When it comes to the shutdown and border wall showdown that started back in December, Donald Trump is the biggest loser.

If all goes well, the bill to avert another shutdown should become law today.

Based on his appearance on CNN last night, Howard Schultz appears to be running a campaign about nothing.

The National Debt officially topped $22 trillion, marking a $2 trillion increase since President Trump took office.

Most Americans don’t want to see another government shutdown, but they’re somewhat divided on the issue of a border wall.

The former Attorney General is seriously pondering a presidential bid. Seriously.

President Trump now appears to accept the compromise worked out by Congress to avoid another shutdown even though he’s not pleased with it.

It’s far too early, but Joe Biden’s advantages in these polls of Democratic voters can’t be ignored.

Former Astronaut Mark Kelly, the husband of Gabby Giffords, is running for Senate in Arizona against Martha McSally.

The right has spent a seemingly inordinate amount of time focusing on relatively powerless Members of Congress.

Congressional negotiators have reportedly reached a budget deal, but it’s not clear if the President will agree to it.

You keep using that word, I do not think it means what you think it means.

The self-appointed Acting President of Venezuela has said he doesn’t rule out the idea of American intervention in his country, but we should rule it out immediately.

The arguments against withdrawing American forces from Afghanistan are becoming weaker and weaker.

Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar became the latest Democrat to enter the 2020 race on Sunday.

Negotiations to avert another shutdown appear to have stalled over the weekend with just four days left to go before funding runs out.

And a reminder about how little the current POTUS understands.

Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren is the latest entrant into an already crowded field for the Democratic nomination.

A new poll shows that Virginians don’t necessarily believe their state leaders need to step aside in the wake of recent scandals.

A death penalty case from Alabama raises First Amendment issues that the Supreme Court chose to brush aside.

In a replay of last week, Virginia’s top Democrats are calling on a state official to resign. This time, though, it’s Lt. Governor Justin Fairfax.

Critics on both the Left and the Right rightly see an injustice here but the US Supreme Court allowed it to happen.

Another Friday, another political mess for the Commonwealth of Virginia.

After a week of scandal and chaos in Virginia politics, there’s no sign that Virginia Governor Ralph Northam is going anywhere, and there’s very little that can be done to force him out of office.

The publisher of the National Enquirer is learning that it may have been a mistake to go to war against Jeff Bezos.

Late last night, the Supreme Court blocked a Louisiana abortion law from going into effect, the first significant abortion rights ruling since Justice Kavanaugh took the bench.

It’s reasonable and just to adjust our outrage based on the context of the time when incidents occurred.

The Virginia political dumpster fire has brought in a Republican this time.

Congress appears to be near a deal on border security and government funding, but it’s unclear if the President will be on board.