Sen. Bernie Sanders speaks at a rally with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in Council Bluffs, Iowa, November 8, 2019. (Scott Morgan/Reuters) Though I’m not a regular listener to Joe Rogan’s podcast, when I do tune in I find him to be refreshingly open-minded, smart, and engaging. But Rogan’s stated justification for voting for Bernie Sanders makes

Joe Rogan on The Joe Rogan Experience (via YouTube) Joe Rogan hosts one of the most successful podcasts in the country. On it, he talks about his passions for comedy and mixed martial arts, and about conspiracy theories. He also talks about male self-improvement and self-experimentation. Working out, doing drugs, fasting, meditation, sensory deprivation, etc.,

Democratic 2020 U.S. presidential candidate and former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden attends a campaign event at Simpson College in Indianola, Iowa, U.S., January 18, 2020. (REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton) Kathleen Kingsbury, a deputy editorial page editor and member of The New York Times’s editorial board, revealed Thursday that she wrote a full 2,000-word endorsement of Joe

Hillary Clinton speaks in Las Vegas, Nev., in 2016. (Steve Marcus/Reuters) This is an excerpt from episode 187 of The Editors. Rich: So, Michael, this podcast, in deference to you, cannot pass up any opportunity to discuss significant Tulsi Gabbard news. We have major news breaking as we record of Tulsi’s defamation. Is it defamation? Michael:

Hillary Clinton speaks at a panel for the Hulu documentary Hillary during the Winter TCA Press Tour in Pasadena, Calif., January 17, 2020. (Mario Anzuoni/Reuters) Despite the fact that Clinton has been in politics for decades, it seems that her political instincts are actually quite terrible. A Hillary Clinton hot take is in the headlines

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) speaks ahead of a vote on two articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump on Capitol Hill, December 18, 2019. (House TV via Reuters) House Intelligence Committee chairman Adam Schiff (D., Calif.) pushed back Wednesday on the claim that the impending election makes any effort to hold

Sen. Bernie Sanders during the Democratic primary campaign debate at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, January 14, 2020. The watchdog group Common Cause, a left-leaning government watchdog group, has filed a complaint with the Federal Election Committee relating to a non-profit founded by Bernie Sanders. Sanders established the non-profit Our Revolution after his 2016

South Bend mayor Pete Buttigieg during the Democratic primary debate at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, Calif., December 19, 2019. (Mike Blake/Reuters) Imagine you heard that someone got a “direct diploma” from Harvard but didn’t actually have to do four years of papers and tests. The term “veteran” wields a strange talismanic power in

Voters leave a polling station on election day in Olmsted Falls, Ohio, in 2016. (Aaron Josefczyk/Reuters) The rising authoritarianism of our time is not an aberration. ‘Living in a democracy is no longer protection from authoritarianism,” Joshua Keating argues in Slate. One quibble: Living in a democracy never offered protection from authoritarianism — democracy has

Actress Gwyneth Paltrow (L) poses with former first lady Hillary Clinton (C) and producer Harvey Weinstein in New York, December 3, 1998. (PM/ELD/Reuters) Hillary Clinton defended her past association with disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein in an interview released Tuesday, suggesting she would not have taken the thousands in donations to her 2016 campaign if

Senator Gary Peters (James Lawler Duggan/Reuters) Senator Gary Peters (D., Mich.), already facing a tough reelection campaign against Republican John James, came under further fire Tuesday after publicly condemning the malign influence of “dark money” in politics despite benefiting from a $1.4 million ad campaign by VoteVets Action Fund. “Today marks a decade of Citizens

Former vice president Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders during the Democratic primary debate at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, Calif., December 19, 2019. (Mike Blake/Reuters) Bernie Sanders apologized Monday to Joe Biden over an op-ed written by a supporter and circulated by his campaign alleging that the former vice president “has a big

Sen. Bernie Sanders speaks during Martin Luther King Jr. Day observances in Columbia, S.C., January 20, 2020. (Sam Wolfe/Reuters) Senator Bernie Sanders (D., Vt.) on Monday said he may be open to demolishing sections of the U.S.–Mexico border wall, as well as halting 99 percent of deportations. When asked whether he would support tearing down

The headquarters of the New York Times is pictured on 8th Avenue in New York, February 5, 2008. (Gary Hershorn/Reuters) Imagine how self-important you’d have to be as an institution to decide that the public so craves your political advice and opinion that you need to air an hour-long program dedicated to sharing your painstaking

Rep. Steve King (R-IA) speaks to reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., September 6, 2017. (Joshua Roberts/REUTERS) The moderate Republican Main Street Partnership PAC is endorsing Representative Steve King’s 2020 opponent Randy Feenstra, making it the first national Republican PAC to come out against King’s reelection following allegations that he harbors white nationalist sentiments.

South Bend, Ind., mayor Pete Buttigieg at the Democratic primary debate at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, January 14, 2020. (Shannon Stapleton/Reuters) Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg slammed as “bullshit” the suggestion that he is implicated in a “corporate price fixing” scandal that ensnared a client of the consulting firm he worked for. “You’ve been

Democratic U.S. presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg delivers a speech during the campaign event in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, U.S., January 15, 2020. (Eduardo Munoz/Reuters) Former New York City mayor and Democratic presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg revealed he intends to make all new cars electric by 2035 as part of a

Rep. Justin Amash speaks at CPAC 2013 (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters) It seems to suggest, after all, that there is no place for an independent in politics.  For years, fiscally conservative advocacy groups were giving then-Republican representative Justin Amash awards, praise, and donations. Now that he’s an independent, however, many of those same groups are snubbing him

Sen. Bernie Sanders speaks during a campaign event in Nashua, N.H., December 13, 2019. (Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters) Ideology and authenticity explain the 78-year-old socialist’s appeal to young Democrats. What divides Iowa Democrats most starkly is not income, education, gender, or even ideology. Rather, age is the factor that most strongly correlates with whether an Iowa Democrat

Senator Elizabeth Warren speaks with reporters at an event in Claremont, N.H., January 18, 2019. (Brian Snyder/Reuters) It’s an unseemly and ugly business to pretend to believe anything that Warren says. Ever since she began explaining how her Medicare for all plan would be funded, and how she would pass it, Elizabeth Warren has been

Senator Bernie Sanders talks to reporters during a break in the procedural start of the Senate impeachment trial of U.S. President Donald Trump in Washington, U.S., January 16, 2020. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters) On the menu today: Why the impeachment trial is a remarkably lifelike simulation of an actually consequential, high-stakes political fight; why some Vermont Democrats

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, former Vice President Joe Biden, and Sen. Bernie Sanders at the Democratic primary debate at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, January 14, 2020. (Shannon Stapleton/Reuters) Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden said Wednesday that he would consider former 2020 contenders Beto O’Rourke and Julián Castro as running mates or members of his

As of this writing, the Democratic presidential contest looks very fluid, with four candidates bunched up in Iowa and New Hampshire. But the sudden relevance of foreign policy, thanks to the confrontation with Iran, has made it look more and more like a two-person race between Joe Biden and Bernie … Read More

Sen. Elizabeth Warren speaks with Sen. Bernie Sanders after the Democratic primary debte in Des Moines, Iowa, January 14, 2020. (Shannon Stapleton/Reuters) It’s hard to believe that behind closed doors, lifelong outspoken feminist Bernie Sanders suddenly transforms into Andrew Dice Clay and suddenly goes on about all the things a woman could never do. But

Activist Tom Steyer, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, and former Vice President at the Democratic primary debate at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, January 14, 2020. (Shannon Stapleton/Reuters) In last night’s debate, Senator Warren again mentioned how her “Aunt Bee” had helped her when she was at wit’s end holding a job and taking care of

Sen. Elizabeth Warren speaks with Sen. Bernie Sanders after the Democratic primary debte in Des Moines, Iowa, January 14, 2020. (Shannon Stapleton/Reuters) Elizabeth Warren says Bernie Sanders once told her that a woman couldn’t win the presidency. Bernie Sanders says Elizabeth Warren is lying about the encounter. I have no idea whom to believe. Some

Sen. Elizabeth Warren at the Democratic primary campaign debate at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, January 14, 2020. (Shannon Stapleton/Reuters) If you’ve ever covered a presidential primary, then you know that there are two things you can always find at the Iowa State Fair: a pork chop on a stick and some nimrod who

From left: activist Tom Steyer, Sent. Elizabeth Warren, former Vice President Joe Biden, and Sen. Bernie Sanders during the Democratic primary debate at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, January 14, 2020. (Shannon Stapleton/Reuters) We had 48 hours of buildup to the Great Progressive Presidential Candidate Duel, and then both contenders threw away their shots.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar during the Democratic primary debate at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, Calif., December 19, 2019. (Mike Blake/Reuters) As mentioned in today’s Jolt, 29 Democrats of varying stature ran for president this cycle, and as the year begins, only four really have a serious shot at the nomination. Supporters of the early

Democratic 2020 U.S. presidential candidate and entrepreneur Andrew Yang poses for a photograph with a student wearing a “Make America Great Again” (MAGA) hat during a campaign stop at Concord High School in Concord, New Hampshire, U.S. January 2, 2020. (Brian Snyder/Reuters) In short, he talks like a person, not a politician, and he talks