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☆ Joe Biden, Pot President?
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-03 | by ( Jess Bidgood | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

On Labor Day in 2022, John Fetterman found himself in a room in Pittsburgh with President Biden. And how did the president respond? “He was just, like, ‘Yeah, absolutely,’” Fetterman told me yesterday. The Justice Department on Tuesday said it had recommended that federal restrictions on marijuana become a whole lot chiller. “High reward, zero risk,” said the perpetually sweatshirted Fetterman, joking that he advises Biden only on matters of fashion and weed policy.

Persons: John Fetterman, Biden, Fetterman, ” Fetterman, ” Organizations: Labor, Democrat, U.S . Senate, Department Locations: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

☆ How Six-Week Abortion Bans Went From Fringe to Reality
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-01 | by ( Jess Bidgood | More About Jess Bidgood | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Just over a decade ago, six-week abortion bans were seen as too radical even by many members of the anti-abortion movement, who worried they carried too much political and legal risk. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, cuts off access to the procedure before many women even know they are pregnant, leaving millions of women in the South hundreds of miles from a clinic offering abortion. The ban represents another victory for the true believers of the anti-abortion movement that seek sharp curbs on the procedure. But when such a ban was first introduced, mainstream abortion opponents who preferred gradually chipping away at abortion rights felt such restrictions could backfire and undermine their broader goals. I asked her how the six-week ban moved from the fringe to the mainstream — and why those early warnings from anti-abortion allies might be coming true now.

Persons: Ron DeSantis, Elizabeth Dias, Lisa Lerer, Roe, Wade Organizations: Gov, Republican Locations: Florida

☆ Election Deniers Are Still Shaping Arizona Politics
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-29 | by ( Jess Bidgood | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Two years ago, a group of election deniers ran for office in Arizona, with Kari Lake’s campaign for governor topping the ticket. It turned out, though, that the small matter of losing was not going to keep election deniers out of the spotlight, nor away from key roles in the Arizona Republican Party and beyond. Last week, the Democratic attorney general of Arizona charged 17 people with counts including conspiracy, fraud and forgery, alleging they made efforts to overturn former President Donald Trump’s narrow loss in the 2020 election that amounted to a crime. Eleven of the people charged cast fake electoral votes in support of Trump. (While their names were redacted in the indictment, detailed descriptions contained in the charging documents made it easy to tell who they are.)

Persons: Kari Lake’s, Donald Trump’s, Trump, Rudolph Giuliani, Mark Meadows, Boris Epshteyn Organizations: Arizona Republican Party, Democratic, Trump, White House Locations: Arizona, New York

☆ Three Questions About Politics and the Campus Protests
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-26 | by ( Jess Bidgood | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Soon, the comparison to another protest-filled election year inevitably arose. That year, protests at Columbia University exploded amid a nationwide movement against the Vietnam War, one that involved violent clashes as police moved in on protesters at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago that summer. Democrats, who had been deeply divided over the war, ultimately lost the election to President Nixon. There are many differences between then and now, and it is much too soon to know whether the campus protests happening now will come to feel like what happened that seismic year. It’s another question mark in a political season already full of them.

Persons: Nixon Organizations: Columbia, Democratic National Convention Locations: Gaza, New York, Texas, Southern California, Vietnam, Chicago

☆ Trump Respects Women, Most Men Say
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-24 | by ( Jess Bidgood | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

This month, The New York Times/Siena College poll asked voters how much they think former President Trump respects women: a lot, some, not much or not at all? You’ll never guess what happened next! A majority of men — 54 percent — said that Trump respects women either “a lot” or “some.” Just 31 percent of women saw things that way. But that disparity is important to understand in an election that already seems primed to turn on the question of just how big the gender gap between Trump, who draws more support from men, and President Biden, who leads among women, is going to be. Our poll found that Trump had a 20-percentage-point lead among men, while Biden had a 16-percentage-point lead among women.

Persons: Trump, —, ”, Biden Organizations: New York Times, Siena College, Trump

☆ Can Biden make Trump seem like Mitt Romney?
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-22 | by ( Jess Bidgood | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

President Biden made a populist case for re-election during his swing through Pennsylvania over three days last week, laying out plans on tariffs and taxes and seeking to burnish his working-class bona fides as a son of Scranton. But he also used the trip to sharpen the story he tells about former President Donald Trump, depicting him as a creature of rarefied playgrounds like Mar-a-Lago and a pawn of the billionaires who frequent them. “He learned the very best way to get rich is to inherit it,” Biden said in Scranton. “He learned that telling people, ‘You’re fired,’ was something to laugh about.”Twelve years ago, Democrats including then-Vice President Biden relentlessly pilloried a different wealthy Republican as an elitist: Mitt Romney, who was once a Massachusetts governor and chief executive of Bain Capital who won the Republican presidential nomination during a burst of national anger over Wall Street excess. — and slammed him for his free-market views on the auto industry bailout and the foreclosure crisis.

Persons: Biden, Donald Trump, “, ” Biden, ‘ You’re, ’, Mitt Romney Organizations: Republican, Bain Capital Locations: Pennsylvania, Scranton, “, Massachusetts

☆ Is Trump’s Trial Really About ‘Hush Money’?
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-17 | by ( Jess Bidgood | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

As former President Donald Trump’s first criminal trial begins, there is one battle taking place in a Manhattan courtroom, where he faces 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. But there is another fight taking place in the court of public opinion, which concerns a much more basic question: What should this trial even be called? Many media outlets — including The New York Times — have used “hush-money trial” as a shorthand for the proceedings. It’s a nod to the fact that Trump is accused of directing a payoff, and then falsifying business records, to cover up a potential sex scandal involving a porn star. “It’s an election interference case,” he said in an interview on NY1 in January.

Persons: Donald Trump’s, It’s, Trump, Alvin Bragg, Stormy Daniels, “ It’s, ”, Biden Organizations: The New York Times, NY1 Locations: Manhattan

☆ Donald Trump, the Defendant
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-15 | by ( Jess Bidgood | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

And all the while, he was, for all intents and purposes, stuck. As the first criminal trial of former President Donald Trump began on Monday with jury selection, he was something he has never wanted to be: a criminal defendant, glowering next to his lawyers, tethered to the rulings of a judge he has railed against and the pedestrian scheduling requirements of the court system. “This is an assault on America, nothing like this has ever happened before,” Trump said before he went into court on Monday morning, accusing his political rivals of orchestrating the trial but offering no evidence. Trump claimed the charges that he falsified records to cover up a sex scandal with the porn star Stormy Daniels amounted to political persecution. They are expected to tell the nation’s highest court, essentially, that Trump’s status as a president during the events in question means he cannot be tried as “Citizen Trump,” as a panel of appeals court judges ruled he could.

Persons: Donald Trump, glowering, ” Trump, Trump, Stormy Daniels, I’m, “ Citizen Trump Organizations: Trump, “ Citizen, ” Locations: America

☆ Governing the ungovernable
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-12 | by ( Jess Bidgood | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

When members of Congress return to Washington from their home districts, they often trudge to Capitol Hill for a tally known as a “bed check,” a low-stakes vote series that is mostly aimed at taking attendance. The majority led by Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, keeps shrinking. Restive members of the far-right Freedom Caucus frequently derail his plans. “The Lord Jesus himself could not manage this conference,” Representative Troy Nehls of Texas, a Republican, said on CNN this week. “You just can’t do it.”

Persons: Mike Johnson, Johnson, Donald Trump, Marjorie Taylor Greene dangles, Jesus, Troy Nehls, “, ” Organizations: Capitol, Louisiana Republican, Republican, ”, CNN Locations: Washington, Louisiana, Ukraine, Georgia, Texas

☆ College Towns Usually Lift Democrats. Is the Picture More Complicated in 2024?
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-08 | by ( Jess Bidgood | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

If you want to be the president, you should probably win Wisconsin. And if you are a Democrat, there is a proven way to do that: Run up the numbers in Dane County, the fast-growing and deeply progressive swath of the state that contains Madison and the behemoth public university that carries the state’s name. President Biden’s trip on Monday to a technical college in Madison, where he announced a new plan to help pay off student loans, seemed to be part of an effort to build excitement around his re-election bid in a college town that has been a bright spot for Democrats, one seen as crucial to his victory in the state in 2020 and vital to his chances in November. “My district,” said State Senator Kelda Roys, a Democrat who represents much of Madison, “could potentially decide the fate of the free world.”But this year, amid signs of an enthusiasm gap among young voters and widespread anger on college campuses over the administration’s handling of Israel’s war in Gaza, college towns are emerging as a more complex battleground for Democrats. So I decided to head to Madison myself.

Persons: Biden’s, ”, Kelda Roys, “ Organizations: behemoth, Democrat Locations: Wisconsin, Dane County, Madison, “, Gaza

☆ When Food, War and Politics Collide
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-05 | by ( Jess Bidgood | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The deadly Israeli strike on an aid convoy that killed seven workers for the relief group World Central Kitchen in the Gaza Strip shook official Washington this week. It prompted President Biden to issue his sharpest public criticism of Israel to date and spurred Israel’s military to make a rare admission of fault. It also revealed the power of something that is usually an afterthought in national and global politics: food. On Thursday, Biden held a tense call with Netanyahu, threatening to place conditions on future support for the country. Hours later, Israel said it would permit more aid deliveries in Gaza.

Persons: Biden, Israel, José Andrés, Benjamin Netanyahu, “, Netanyahu Organizations: Biden, White, Reuters, Israel Defense Forces Locations: Gaza, Washington, Israel

☆ Abortion and the Florida Fakeout
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-03 | by ( Jess Bidgood | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

It seemed, for a while there, that 2024 was going to be The Presidential Election Year Without Much Florida. Florida, which was once the ultimate battleground state but has tilted redder in recent years, seemed like it would basically sit this election out, like a retiree with a cocktail watching pickleball from the sidelines. Not so, President Biden’s campaign said this week. On Monday, the Florida Supreme Court upheld a ban on abortions after six weeks of pregnancy. At the same time, it also ruled that a proposed constitutional amendment that would guarantee the right to abortion “before viability,” usually around 24 weeks, could go on the November ballot.

Persons: Ron DeSantis, Donald Trump, Biden’s Organizations: Gov, Republican, Sunshine State, Florida’s Locations: Florida

☆ How I Learned to Love the Rerun Election
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-01 | by ( Jess Bidgood | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

When our pollsters recently asked voters how they felt about the coming election, they heard words that could also describe rancid garbage, personal regret or a meteor headed for Earth. “Lousy,” offered Joe Ruddach, 61, the owner of auto and coffee businesses who lives in Spokane, Wash., when I called him last week. He added words like “anxious” and “stressed” for good measure. “I wish they could get younger people,” he said with a sigh, “or someone that could bring people together.”I’m the new host of this newsletter, and I get it. The rematch between President Biden and former President Donald Trump feels inherently tired, or perhaps inescapably depressing.

Persons: ”, Joe Ruddach, Biden, Donald Trump Organizations: New York Times, Siena College Locations: Spokane

☆ Welcome to the Jess Bidgood Era
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-29 | by ( Lisa Lerer | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

I’m so pleased to tell you that after a long and exhaustive search, we have found our next newsletter writer, Jess Bidgood. Jess is new to this newsletter but not to The New York Times. And Jess is just the right person to chart us through this uncharted territory. She has a keen eye for character, endless curiosity about the country and a wonderful sense of humor. After that, you’ll find her in your inbox three times a week — Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

Persons: Jess Bidgood, Jess, Chris Sununu, She’ll, you’ll Organizations: New York Times, Gov Locations: Boston, New Hampshire

☆ Overlooked No More: Beatrix Potter, Author of ‘The Tale of Peter Rabbit’
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-19 | by ( Jess Bidgood | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

This article is part of Overlooked, a series of obituaries about remarkable people whose deaths, beginning in 1851, went unreported in The Times. With “The Tale of Peter Rabbit,” Beatrix Potter created what would become one of the world’s best-known children’s book characters. The book, about a cheeky rabbit who steals vegetables from the garden of one Mr. McGregor and loses his coat and shoes in a narrow escape, became a literary juggernaut that has sold more than 45 million copies. It also spawned a merchandising empire and has left an indelible imprint on children’s book publishing.

Persons: Peter Rabbit, ” Beatrix Potter, McGregor Organizations: Times

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