For two years we’ve watched as highly educated liberals come up with one reason after another for Hillary Clinton’s loss in the 2016 election. Russian trolls and hackers, James Comey’s memo, hopelessness among white opioid addicts, Donald Trump’s sophisticated use of a metaphorical “dog whistle,”…
Revisiting Page's encounter with a Russian spy in the wake of James Wolfe's indictment.
Tom Perez and the DNC file suit against Donald Trump, the Russian government, and Wikileaks.
From hero to zero.
Former British intelligence agent Christopher Steele used to be Mr. Chatty when it came to the allegations of Russia-Trump collusion he had assembled. In the months before the 2016 U.S. presidential election, Steele talked with the New York Times, the Washington Post, the New Yorker, Yahoo News,…
The Hillary Unplugged tour made it to India this week, where the former presidential candidate modified her theory as to why she lost the 2016 election. This time, it wasn’t James Comey, or even “the Russians" that did her in. In fact, it was the Americans. Here is what she said:
The so-called “Trump dossier” continues to be the most important—and contested—document in the many probes of Russian involvement in the 2016 presidential election. Since its publication by BuzzFeed on January 10, 2017—bearing the remarkable disclaimer that “the allegations are unverified, and the…
An article published by CNS News alleged that the Bernie Sanders campaign was fined $14,500 by the Federal Election Commission for “accepting illegal in-kind contributions during [the] 2016 campaign.” Facebook users questioned the article and flagged it for third-party fact checkers.
Reporting on the Mueller indictment, the New York Times headlined its article, in typical Gray Lady fashion, “Moscow’s Hand Swirled in U.S., but Whether It Tipped Election Is Unclear.” Presumably, an election victory due to the machinations of a foreign “hand” can hardly produce a legitimate…
Every four years we elect a president. And every four years someone emits a squeak of protest that the method we use for electing presidents under the Constitution—the Electoral College—is unfair, undemocratic, antiquated, or unpopular and should therefore be eliminated. Most of the time, this is…
On December 5, the Republican National Committee formalized its support for Roy Moore by sending $170,000 to aid his campaign in the race’s final week. The decision came days after President Donald Trump announced his endorsement of Moore. The money is a pittance in the world of modern campaign…
As special counsel Robert Mueller and the FBI circle ever closer to the Oval Office, Washington is convulsed by speculation that the president may take drastic action to cut short the investigation. Donald Trump has escalated his Twitter attacks on the FBI and the Justice Department, and there is a…
“This is my truth,” says Donna Brazile, the two-time DNC chairwoman of her self-contradictory bestseller.
Donna Brazile's new book, Hacks, is doing boffo box office. So much so that the day after the book’s official release, Amazon was sold out of hardback copies.
George Papadopoulos was ambitious and underqualified, the kind of wannabe who fills the lower rungs of many a political campaign. This foreign policy adviser to the Donald Trump campaign would not have been even a footnote in the history of the 2016 election before he pleaded guilty to lying to the…
Toothpaste, a 7,000-year-old product, is rarely a leading indicator. But the world’s top purveyor of the stuff—along with laundry detergent, dish soap, diapers, and other sundries—made a decision earlier this year that could portend a big shift in the advertising industry.
When Steve Bannon became CEO of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign on August 17, 2016, Trump was far behind Hillary Clinton, according to Bannon. “We were 16 points down,” he said.
Everyone’s talking about the civil war in the Republican party. It seems more like a surrender to us.
When Steve Bannon became CEO of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign on August 17, 2016, Trump was far behind Hillary Clinton, according to Bannon. “We were 16 points down,” he said.
One of the more surprising revelations about Russia’s reported meddling in the 2016 election is that Moscow supported a raft of objectively anti-Trump, left-wing causes. First we learned that the Internet Research Agency, a Kremlin-linked organization, bought social media advertisements that…
The three technology media giants absorbing most of the spotlight for Russian influence in 2016 election on their respective platforms are poised to testify in open hearings next week before Congress.
Earlier this month, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Gill v. Whitford, a case in which University of Wisconsin professor William Whitford and a group of plaintiffs (all Democratic voters in the state) contend that the drawing up of Wisconsin’s state legislative districts was an…
Earlier this month, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Gill v. Whitford, a case in which University of Wisconsin professor William Whitford and a group of plaintiffs (all Democratic voters in the state) contend that the drawing up of Wisconsin’s state legislative districts was an…
For months we’ve been hearing that the Russian government meddled in last year’s presidential election to aid the candidacy of Donald Trump. And now news has emerged that part of that dastardly campaign was supporting ... Black Lives Matter?
One day, when he was running for the Democratic nomination for president in 1976, Jimmy Carter was asked what he thought about Hubert Humphrey. In fairness to Carter, it should be remembered that Humphrey—the former vice president and 1968 Democratic candidate—was lurking in the background that…
If you’re still wondering how Donald Trump, a man whose approval rating sits at 36 percent in a September 6 NBC/Wall Street Journal poll, ever became president, well, here’s a clue: That same poll has Hillary Clinton’s approval rating at 30 percent.
As Jeb Bush, Mitt Romney, and untold others ramp up their campaigns for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, they’re going to be in for a surprise. A candidate neither they nor the political class regard as a serious contender is ahead of them in organizing a well-financed and unique…
Two days after the 2016 election, we had this to say about Donald Trump’s stunning victory:
Two days after the 2016 election, we had this to say about Donald Trump’s stunning victory:
There was nothing normal about the July 7 meeting between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin during the G20 summit in Hamburg. The mere scheduling of this friendly chat handed Putin a PR victory, which the Kremlin-controlled media exploited gleefully. Not only was the Russian dictator not isolated or…
There was nothing normal about the July 7 meeting between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin during the G20 summit in Hamburg. The mere scheduling of this friendly chat handed Putin a PR victory, which the Kremlin-controlled media exploited gleefully. Not only was the Russian dictator not isolated or…
The Senate voted Thursday to impose new sanctions against Russia for its efforts to disrupt last year's presidential election through cyberattacks against the Democratic party and state election rolls.
Hillary Clinton spread around the blame in a candid interview with Recode last Wednesday. She called her private email server a "nothingburger" and the Times endorsement of her candidacy a hypocritical reversal—they reduced up the scandal to "a matter for the help desk," after having "covered it…
Note: Fox News retracted the story upon which this report was based on May 23.
Shattered: Inside Hillary Clinton's Doomed Campaign has been all the buzz in Washington. The book, by Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes, is full of stories that probably never would have been told if Hillary had eked out an Electoral College win. Not just because a victorious campaign tends not to air…
Shattered: Inside Hillary Clinton's Doomed Campaign has been all the buzz in Washington. The book, by Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes, is full of stories that probably never would have been told if Hillary had eked out an Electoral College win. Not just because a victorious campaign tends not to air…
The New York Times has a long story about the role FBI chief James Comey played in shaping last year's election. Buried well into the piece is this bombshell:
In an interview with the Washington Examiner two months into President Trump's administration, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) reflected on the president's ascent to America's highest office, offering fresh insights from his vantage point as a libertarian-leaning representative smack in the heart of…
There are many claimants to the honor of having nudged Donald Trump over the top in the presidential election. But the folks with the best case are the National Rifle Association and the consultants who made their TV ads.
There are many claimants to the honor of having nudged Donald Trump over the top in the presidential election. But the folks with the best case are the National Rifle Association and the consultants who made their TV ads.
Watch the latest video at video.foxnews.com
There's an untold story from the 2016 election that should encourage Democrats and worry Republicans. It happened in Houston, the nation's fourth largest city in population and the hometown of former President George H. W. Bush. To be precise it's Harris County, Texas—which consists mostly of…
The election of 2016 was terrible because it wasn’t an election, it was a rebellion. America is having a civil war, or, to be more accurate, a War of Incivility. The war is not between Republicans and Democrats or between conservatives and progressives. The war is between the frightened and what…
The fourth quarter economic growth numbers are in, and they are ugly:
Over the course of the last year or so, many Trump supporters have pointed to the string of unlikely victories that propelled him to the White House and argued that he was playing three-dimensional chess. I think the temptation to consider Trump a tactical genius should be avoided. For every…
When it comes to the widening "post-fact," "post-truth" and "fake news" landscape supposedly foisted on naïve Americans by the alt-right, it would be hard to outdo the progressive narrative of how Wisconsin's voter ID law "suppressed" turnout and handed Donald Trump the state's ten electoral votes.
Have a question for Matt Labash? Ask him at askmattlabash@gmail.com or click here.
With just under a month until Donald Trump's inauguration, many liberals have ratcheted up the hyperbole to the point of derangement. The New York Times editorial board has called for the abolition of the Electoral College, dismissing it as nothing more than an artifact of slavery. This came on the…
At the New York Post, Daniel Halper reports on the launch of a new quarterly journal, American Affairs:
The crosstabs of the latest YouGov poll show that the majority of Democrats have embraced a reading of the November election that is conspiratorial and false:
In the latest episode of Conversations with Bill Kristol, the WEEKLY STANDARD editor at large speaks with National Review senior editor Jonah Goldberg about politics and culture. Watch the video below, via the Foundation for Constitutional Government:
In this episode of THE WEEKLY STANDARD Confab, Fred Barnes looks ahead to the new year when Trump takes Washington. And Ethan Epstein and Michael Warren join host Eric Felten to pronounce on the best and worst of 2016 politics.
Russian vilification of President Obama is reaching renewed heights after the president on Thursday ordered a sweeping package of sanctions and the expulsion of 35 Russian officials from the United States, amid mounting allegations of Kremlin-led efforts to interfere in the 2016 election.
Editor at large William Kristol's weekly Kristol Clear podcast, with predictions for the Trump administration, the Supreme Court and the wall; Why Barack Obama tried--and failed--to be the Harry Truman of the Palestinian state; Plus Bill's review of Rogue One, and why conservatives should embrace…
After initially promising to respond to Barack Obama's recent actions against Russia for meddling in American politics, Vladimir Putin is now saying he won't respond in kind to the Obama administration's decision to expel Russian diplomats and shut down Russian facilities in America:
The Obama administration is set to announce expanded sanctions on Russia this week—perhaps as soon as Thursday, according to one report—in response to the country's tampering with this year's U.S. presidential election.
Barack Obama told his former adviser and campaign manager, David Axelrod, that he could have beaten Donald Trump had the president been able to run again in 2016. The Washington Post reports on Obama's appearance on Axelrod's podcast. Here's an excerpt:
Politics being one damn thing after another, political language never sleeps. Fortunately, the insomniac hunter of neologisms David K. Barnhart has compiled a lexicon of au courant political terms. Should confirmation be needed that Americans are innovative, democratic, and deranged by…
It will go down as a classic do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do presidential statement. At a press conference in Berlin on November 17, Barack Obama urged his successor to “stand up" to Vladimir Putin when Russia deviates "from our values and international norms."
Republicans have lost the last two presidential elections, but not much else over the past six years. They’ve captured the House and Senate. They now hold 31 governorships and 69 of the 99 state legislative chambers. What this means is pretty simple: There’s an emerging Republican majority.
With just under a month until Donald Trump’s inauguration, many liberals have ratcheted up the hyperbole to the point of derangement. The New York Times editorial board has called for the abolition of the Electoral College, dismissing it as nothing more than an artifact of slavery. This came on the…
Politics being one damn thing after another, political language never sleeps. Fortunately, the insomniac hunter of neologisms David K. Barnhart has compiled a lexicon of au courant political terms. Should confirmation be needed that Americans are innovative, democratic, and deranged by…
Donald Trump has selected his campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, to be counselor to the president. Conway, who joined the Trump campaign in August after previously working for a super PAC supporting Texas senator Ted Cruz, will "continue her role as a close advisor to the president and will work…
One night at the beginning of November an African-American church in Greenville, Mississippi, was spray-painted with the slogan "Vote Trump" and then torched. There was no hesitation to pronounce the arson a hate crime perpetrated by vicious Trump-inspired racists. "I see this as an attack on the…
Donald Trump issued a "Dear Pro-Life Leader" letter in September. "As we head into the final stretch of the campaign, the help of leaders like you is essential to ensure that pro-life voters know where I stand," he said. And he was specific about what "I am committed to."
In City Journal, Kay Hymnowitz has a must read essay on the how the media, which are increasingly comprised of educated women, missed the boat on Trump's support among women so badly:
The electoral college will meet Monday. The New York Times has a rundown of what to expect:
The latest Fox News poll shows 68 percent of Americans say President Obama should not pardon Hillary Clinton on his way out of the White House, and I agree. Donald Trump should do it.
President Obama tried on Friday to stop short of saying Vladimir Putin was responsible for Russian hacking into Democratic party political data, but he dropped multiple hints—his own spokesman may have called them "not particularly subtle" ones—that the American adversary was behind the activity.
Having run twice, and unsuccessfully, for the presidency, Hillary Rodham Clinton is now an official object lesson in how not to run for political office. No doubt, Clinton was a subpar candidate—especially when compared with her husband—but one strike against her is manifestly unfair: that she had…
The WEEKLY STANDARD Podcast with executive editor Fred Barnes on Trump's pro-life campaign promises, and his courting of pro-life leaders.
Is the CIA, or some part of it, angry with Donald Trump? Even before the president-elect perhaps unwisely insulted the agency by citing its failures to assess correctly the status of Saddam Hussein's WMD program, someone high up at the CIA seemed to have it in for the incoming commander-in-chief.
Having run twice, and unsuccessfully, for the presidency, Hillary Rodham Clinton is now an official object lesson in how not to run for political office. No doubt, Clinton was a subpar candidate—especially when compared with her husband—but one strike against her is manifestly unfair: that she had…
Donald Trump issued a “Dear Pro-Life Leader" letter in September. "As we head into the final stretch of the campaign, the help of leaders like you is essential to ensure that pro-life voters know where I stand," he said. And he was specific about what "I am committed to."
White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the Intelligence Community wasn't "particularly subtle" in its October assessment of which Russian actors could have authorized the country's hacking of U.S. election activity this year, hinting that Vladimir Putin must have somehow been involved.
It's the opportunity Republicans have been awaiting for six years, which invites the obvious question: Are they going to screw it up? In January, a united Republican Congress and Republican White House will finally have the ability to dispose of Obamacare, the unpopular and destructive…
The Clinton campaign of 2016 will surely go down in history as having made some of the most incredible strategic mistakes in the history of American politics. And we're still learning just how bad it was—a Politico report Wendesday morning contains this shocking detail:
After spending the entire election railing against Hillary Clinton and siphoning votes from her, Green party candidate responded to Donald Trump's victory by demanding a recount—but only in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania, three states Trump narrowly won where reversing the results would…
"Voting machines in more than one-third of all Detroit precincts registered more votes than they should have during last month's presidential election, according to Wayne County records prepared at the request of The Detroit News," according to a report today in the Detroit newspaper. "Detailed…
Reports Friday that U.S. intelligence agencies believe Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential campaign to tilt the election in favor of Donald Trump have sown precisely the kind of confusion that American adversaries must have hoped for with their actions. In an effort to reach some sort of…
The government of New York City is offering counseling and support services for its city workers who are feeling "distressed" or "vulnerable" following last month's elections. In an email sent to city government employees last week and obtained by THE WEEKLY STANDARD, a coalition of agencies…
President Obama has ordered a review of allegations that Russia conducted a series of cyberattacks to influence the presidential election results, according to a top White House official. A spokesman later added that the investigation would include "malicious cyber activity" tied to races for the…
A U.S. district judge denied a motion to halt a recount of Wisconsin ballots cast in the presidential election Friday, while similar legal action is pending Pennsylvania and Michigan's re-tabulation was stopped this week.
It’s the opportunity Republicans have been awaiting for six years, which invites the obvious question: Are they going to screw it up? In January, a united Republican Congress and Republican White House will finally have the ability to dispose of Obamacare, the unpopular and destructive…
Writing at National Journal, Josh Kraushaar suggests Democrats' far-left policies on energy and the environment have been a problem for the party at the ballot box. There are even some Democratic politicos, Kraushaar reports, who are discussing pulling back from the party's hard line on energy…
The WEEKLY STANDARD Podcast with editor William Kristol, live from the TWS Cruise in the Caribbean, on the future of the conservative movement and the latest on the Trump transition.
Vote totals in states where former presidential candidate Jill Stein and the Green party have requested recounts hadn't budged much as of Tuesday morning, the Associated Press reports, with the process in Michigan still in its nascent staged amid a flurry of court action.
A leading House Democrat called on his party to reconsider its political strategy ahead of the 2018 elections and praised incoming president Donald Trump for making a "smart" political decision by convincing an American manufacturer to keep some jobs in the United States. Adam Schiff, an eight-term…
North Carolina governor Pat McCrory conceded defeat Monday in his reelection battle against Democrat Roy Cooper, bringing a razor-thin contest that had been extended by a recount process to a close.
When Hillary Clinton lost the election nearly four weeks ago, one of my graduate school professors ran her concession speech live during my international law class (the United Nations is supreme; universal healthcare is a right; George W. Bush is bad; etc.). His choice didn't bother me…
Top aides for the presidential campaigns for Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton were involved in heated and emotional exchanges during a quadrennial forum at Harvard University's Institute of Politics. The Washington Post reports:
Mitch McConnell didn't have much to complain about on the night of November 4, 2014. In that day's elections, Republicans gained a net nine Senate seats, securing a majority and ensuring McConnell would become Senate majority leader. This was a crowning achievement in a turbulent year for the…
Have a question for Matt Labash? Ask him at askmattlabash@gmail.com or click here.
President-elect Donald Trump's narrow victory of just more than 10,000 votes in Michigan was certified by the state's Board of Canvassers on Monday, officially making him the first Republican White House hopeful to win there since former President George H.W. Bush in 1988.
President Barack Obama has declared he might not follow the tradition of ex-presidents refusing to comment publicly on their successors. In a postelection press conference, he said:
The Scrapbook has been experiencing déjà vu recently. Our memories of the vast left-wing paranoia during the Bush years had become hazy, but this week they all came flooding back. The left was already displaying unusual difficulty in coming to terms with Donald Trump's election victory, but then…
You could drive from Key West to Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, and never cross a state carried by Hillary Clinton. Thirty-two hundred miles, from the subtropics to the high north; from the Gulf Stream to glacier country. So much country and almost all of it colored red on the political map.
A majority of Americans—59 percent—want Donald Trump to stop tweeting and close his Twitter account now that he's been elected president. This is advice Trump is likely to ignore, and should.
While the Democrats reflect and Secretary Hillary Clinton wanders around the wilderness (literally), here are some observations for the establishment of both parties, the #NeverTrumpers, and those still in shock—i.e. the vast majority of Beltway insiders who somehow overlooked "flyover country" and…
Mitch McConnell didn’t have much to complain about on the night of November 4, 2014. In that day's elections, Republicans gained a net nine Senate seats, securing a majority and ensuring McConnell would become Senate majority leader. This was a crowning achievement in a turbulent year for the…
The Scrapbook has been experiencing déjà vu recently. Our memories of the vast left-wing paranoia during the Bush years had become hazy, but this week they all came flooding back. The left was already displaying unusual difficulty in coming to terms with Donald Trump's election victory, but then…
President Barack Obama has declared he might not follow the tradition of ex-presidents refusing to comment publicly on their successors. In a postelection press conference, he said:
On election night, Pennsylvania shocked the country by voting for a Republican presidential candidate for the first time in 28 years. Just days before, Pennsylvania had been written off by experts who assumed the state’s streak of voting Democratic would continue. But in addition to proving them…
A majority of Americans—59 percent—want Donald Trump to stop tweeting and close his Twitter account now that he's been elected president. This is advice Trump is likely to ignore, and should.
You could drive from Key West to Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, and never cross a state carried by Hillary Clinton. Thirty-two hundred miles, from the subtropics to the high north; from the Gulf Stream to glacier country. So much country and almost all of it colored red on the political map.
The WEEKLY STANDARD Podcast with AEI resident fellow Andy Smarick on his recent story "With Smugness Toward None..."
President-elect Donald Trump has offered Nikki Haley the role of United State ambassador to the United Nations. The two-term Republican governor of South Carolina has reportedly accepted:
There seem to be at least two Donald Trumps on how to deal with Saudi Arabia, and it's difficult to know which one will trump the other in office.
Alabama attorney general Luther Strange has decided to run for the Senate to succeed Jeff Sessions. President-elect Donald Trump has picked Sessions to be the U.S. Attorney General.
As a general organizing principle, if Nancy Pelosi is for something, it's probably a bad idea. What, you ask, could be wrong with chocolate ice cream? And yet, when one learns that the House minority leader has a scoop on a sugar cone every morning for breakfast, the stuff immediately goes from…
The WEEKLY STANDARD Podcast with literary editor Philip Terzian on how Trump is not the first presidential candidate of his kind, but the first to win.
Republicans should have no trouble repealing the Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare. They can invoke the procedure known as reconciliation, which means only 51 votes in the Senate will be needed to kill the unpopular health insurance plan. Since there will be 52 Republicans in the new…
From the Foundation for Constitutional Government:
In this episode of THE WEEKLY STANDARD Confab, Fred Barnes joins host Eric Felten to talk about Donald Trump's prospects for having his way with the Senate when it comes to Obamacare; John McCormack tells us whether the Senate is going to nuke the filibuster; and Ethan Epstein shows how a minor…
Not long after the election, the front page of the Washington Post featured a wonderful piece about how Bill and Hillary Clinton lost touch with their home base and with it the White House; along with that came a number of other good stories about how and why. So far so good, as the paper's A…
Philip K. Howard writes in the American Interest of the signal and opportunity of the Trump Revolution:
Minnesota congressman Keith Ellison is the progressive favorite for Democratic National Committee chairman. If Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders get their way, he'll replace disgraced Donna Brazile, who replaced disgraced Debbie Wasserman Schultz, as the party's chief organizer.
After all the wild stories in an unpredictable year, we are now at last moving into a news cycle that is reassuringly predictable, with discoveries as foreseeable and unstoppable as the coming of the cherry blossoms in April or the choking of the Caps in May. Suddenly, we are told, The Presidential…
As a general organizing principle, if Nancy Pelosi is for something, it’s probably a bad idea. What, you ask, could be wrong with chocolate ice cream? And yet, when one learns that the House minority leader has a scoop on a sugar cone every morning for breakfast, the stuff immediately goes from…
Republicans should have no trouble repealing the Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare. They can invoke the procedure known as reconciliation, which means only 51 votes in the Senate will be needed to kill the unpopular health insurance plan. Since there will be 52 Republicans in the new…
Not long after the election, the front page of the Washington Post featured a wonderful piece about how Bill and Hillary Clinton lost touch with their home base and with it the White House; along with that came a number of other good stories about how and why. So far so good, as the paper’s A…
The recriminations and agonies among the defeated have begun, and they are enough to break your heart. Hillary Clinton, who has been in the political world her entire adult life, is treated as a tragic figure by some. Jonathan Alter writes in the Daily Beast that
On November 8, Donald Trump won a decisive victory in the Electoral College, capturing 306 of its 538 votes, more than any Republican in nearly thirty years. Even so, he lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton. Ballots are still being counted, but the latest tally by Dave Wasserman of the Cook…
Did Donald Trump just win the biggest arbitrage bet in history? Having been elected leader of the free world, it sure seems like he did. What was Trump’s presidential campaign strategy, after all, if not an arbitrage play on the value of media coverage found in the difference between media exposure…
After all the wild stories in an unpredictable year, we are now at last moving into a news cycle that is reassuringly predictable, with discoveries as foreseeable and unstoppable as the coming of the cherry blossoms in April or the choking of the Caps in May. Suddenly, we are told, The Presidential…
Over at Slate Jamelle Bouie has been on a tear about how racist Donald Trump and all of his voters are. His case is not especially nuanced: "White Won" and "There's No Such Thing as a Good Trump Voter." You can read Bouie's arguments in depth if you like, but the headlines give you a pretty good…
No one was more surprised than me when Donald Trump pulled off the greatest electoral upset since Truman beat Dewey. (Except maybe these folks.) But from this point on, all the clichés are basically true: He's our next president. Every American should pray for him and hope he's successful.
The WEEKLY STANDARD Podcast with editor William Kristol on the Trump transition.
President Barack Obama spoke about the mindset of young people put off by last week's election results during a speech in Greece Wednesday, urging them not to deviate from the values that ensure "lively, open debate" amid a nationwide swell of protests and school walkouts.
Americans awoke on the morning of 11/9 to a different political world. There is only one word to explain what happened, and it is called democracy.
"It was around 9:20 p.m. when conventional wisdom died," wrote the Wall Street Journal's Neil King on election night. That was the moment when the New York Times's website began projecting that a Donald Trump victory was more likely than not, and it became abundantly obvious that the presidential…
Have a question for Matt Labash, ask him at askmattlabash@gmail.com or click here.
Political coalitions are tricky things to manage in the United States. Ours is a country of more than 320 million people but only two major political parties—so each side's voting bloc tends to be unstable at the margins, where national elections are actually won and lost. It is hard to build a…
Donald Trump, like Ronald Reagan, becomes president as the head of the Republican party and leader of a political movement. For Reagan, joining the party with the conservative movement was painless. They fit nicely. For Trump, merging the party with his populist movement won't be as easy. But it's…
The WEEKLY STANDARD Podcast with senior writer John McCormack on President Obama's Monday press conference.
An unadvertised (so far) sale is underway at the Hillary Clinton campaign store, including the "Woman Card" the campaign issued in April to tweak Donald Trump. When the card was introduced, the campaign wrote:
In the state of Oregon, the secretary of state is charged with auditing public accounts, managing elections, and administering public records. It's a glorified administrative role, which for whatever reason is an elected office in the Pacific Northwestern state.
How could they? It's the question being asked by all the world's press and much of our own. How could the American people, after all they have learned about Donald Trump's private vulgarity, his boasting and confabulation, his wild and tacky business career—how could they vote to place him in the…
In this episode of THE WEEKLY STANDARD Confab, Donald Trump shocks and shakes up a complacent political establishment right and left. Will he be able to meld his brand of populism with traditional GOP conservatism? What will that hybrid look like and will it succeed? Fred Barnes joins Confab host…
"Republicans Dominated The Senate Races, Except The Ones Who Dumped Trump," the Daily Caller reports. Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway calls the story an "important read - and critical to remember moving forward. Still waiting for those stories on how Trump helped down-ballot [Republicans]…
Apocalypse now. “Dear God. What have you done? After Brexit and this election … a world is collapsing before our eyes. Dizziness," was the cri de coeur of Gerard Araud, France's ambassador to the U.S., apparently unaware that anything that discomfits the French pleases a vast number of Americans.…
The 2016 election tested a number of questions about American electioneering, among which was how much organization matters in the modern political environment. The Trump campaign had very little organization and no get-out-the-vote (GOTV) operation. The Clinton campaign went big on both. The…
Vice President-elect Mike Pence will serve as head of Donald Trump's transition to power, replacing New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, according to three sources with knowledge of the plans.
Detroit
Have a question for Matt Labash, ask him at askmattlabash@gmail.com or click here.
They meant it. There have been five national elections in the past decade. In four of them—2006, 2008, 2010, and 2014—voters gave notice to the politicians who are supposed to lead them. They were different elections and different times, and the results invested power in different political…
Americans awoke on the morning of 11/9 to a different political world. There is only one word to explain what happened, and it is called democracy.
How could they? It’s the question being asked by all the world's press and much of our own. How could the American people, after all they have learned about Donald Trump's private vulgarity, his boasting and confabulation, his wild and tacky business career—how could they vote to place him in the…
The late great Donald Westlake signed letters (and emails) “Onward." This wonderfully opaque valediction leaves altogether unclear the writer's own sentiments toward the addressee or the character of his relationship to the correspondent. What does "Onward" really mean? Presumably we all go onward…
Political coalitions are tricky things to manage in the United States. Ours is a country of more than 320 million people but only two major political parties—so each side's voting bloc tends to be unstable at the margins, where national elections are actually won and lost. It is hard to build a…
Donald Trump, like Ronald Reagan, becomes president as the head of the Republican party and leader of a political movement. For Reagan, joining the party with the conservative movement was painless. They fit nicely. For Trump, merging the party with his populist movement won’t be as easy. But it's…
The 2016 election tested a number of questions about American electioneering, among which was how much organization matters in the modern political environment. The Trump campaign had very little organization and no get-out-the-vote (GOTV) operation. The Clinton campaign went big on both. The…
"It was around 9:20 p.m. when conventional wisdom died,” wrote the Wall Street Journal's Neil King on election night. That was the moment when the New York Times's website began projecting that a Donald Trump victory was more likely than not, and it became abundantly obvious that the presidential…
One more unforeseen consequence of Donald Trump's election victory: College students who have been spending too much time at binge drinking or television watching now have a handy excuse for not turning in that required paper on time or for being unprepared for that exam. They can blame it on the…
The WEEKLY STANDARD Podcast with senior writer Stephen F. Hayes on the election, and looking forward.
On Thursday, Bill Kristol told Andrea Mitchell on MSNBC that he "would encourage my Never Trump friends to be open-minded about a Trump administration and willing to help."
Opponents of the death penalty have made a serious tactical error. Rather than stress what is by far their strongest argument—the partially persuasive claim that the government should not, ethically, be in the business of killing people—they have instead stressed the "cost" of executions. The fact,…
Far be it from a recovering ex-#NeverTrump pundit to proffer advice to our 45th president, but our leader-in-waiting could do a lot worse than to call up the American Enterprise Institute and invite Charles Murray to tea. Murray is the man who in his 2012 classic Coming Apart put a name to the…
The WEEKLY STANDARD Podcast with senior writer Mark Hemingway on yesterday's election.
Precious college snowflakes at the University of Michigan-Flint can get the help they need following Hillary Clinton's stunning presidential loss.
Saying the presidency is "bigger than any of us", President Barack Obama complimented the big-picture message of President-elect Donald Trump's victory speech during remarks outside the White House on Wednesday morning, adding that his team would conduct a smooth transition to his successor's…
Hillary Clinton delivered her concession speech in the presidential race late Wednesday morning at the New Yorker hotel, blocks from the venue planned for her victory party the night before—where, not long after 2 a.m., Clinton's campaign chairman John Podesta had taken the podium to send…
Forget Hillary and Trump. The biggest loser Tuesday night was Barack Obama.
When Justice Scalia died on February 13, Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell vowed not to process anyone President Obama might pick for the vacancy, arguing that the next president should make the nomination instead. Senate Republicans stuck to that position, and so the vacancy is now Trump’s to…
One of the big arguments made by Donald Trump and his supporters was that the Republican nominee was capable of redrawing the electoral map. Specifically, they said, Trump would turn out the vote in rustbelt states that hadn't voted reliably GOP in decades. A lot of people found the suggestion that…
Donald Trump has done what Ronald Reagan did. He beat back a hostile press, smears by his opponent, outrage by foreign leaders, vast campaign spending by Wall Street and the wealthy one percent, and vows by actors and rock stars to leave the country if he was elected president.
Donald Trump has won the presidential election. He overcame the polls, the expectations, and the faith-based belief of the political establishment that he couldn't do it. As the results began to come in Tuesday night, as must-win states for Trump slid easily into his column, and as the Democrats'…
Senator Pat Toomey has been reelected in Pennsylvania after a tight race with Democrat Katie McGinty, likely securing the Republican majority in the Senate.
Wisconsin Republican Ron Johnson was all but written off for most of his bid to defend his Senate seat. The first-term incumbent pulled out the eraser Tuesday night, and inked himself in for a return to the upper chamber in a shocking comeback victory over former Sen. Russ Feingold.
In crucial states for Trump's path to the White House, incumbent Republican senators have cruised to victory in what had been previously expected to be close reelection contests.
Republican representative Todd Young will defeat former senator Evan Bayh in the Indiana Senate race, NBC News reported just short of 8:30 p.m. Tuesday, giving the GOP a crucial hold early in its quest to maintain a majority in the upper chamber.
Republican senator Tim Scott has won reelection in South Carolina, according to the projection of the Associated Press. Scott, who was first appointed to the Senate in 2013 following the retirement of fellow Republican Jim DeMint, won the 2014 election to fill the remainder of DeMint's term. His…
The Associated Press has called Indiana for Donald Trump, whose vice-presidential pick is governor of the state, as the first polls close on across America.
I skipped out the door of the polling place this afternoon as I usually do after voting, filled with patriotism and awe and reverence and gratitude for such a privilege—and a tinge of regret that so many of my fellow voters won't share the experience, because they were too stupid or too lazy or too…
Lots of interesting reflections today from email correspondents on the election, America in 2016 and life in general. Here's one, from a teacher:
As doubts continue to linger over the efficacy of Obamacare, Colorado voters will decide whether they want to create the nation's first functioning single-payer system on Tuesday.
Since there will be an avalanche of post-election analysis on Wednesday, I thought it would be more helpful to give you some thoughts on what to look for tonight as the returns come in.
Like a new drug commercial with a list of side effects longer than the problem it solves, Donald Trump's campaign is leaving behind a wake of issues for the Republicans, the economy, and public policy in general. Despite Trump's distracting 3 am tweets, his unapologetic sexism, and his contempt for…
The WEEKLY STANDARD Podcast with various predictions on tomorrow's elections.
I spend a lot of time these days wondering if anyone has ever given more thought to a relatively meaningless vote than I have this year.
Wilmington, N.C.
Rebuilding America Now PAC has a new ad airing in Northern Virginia attacking Hillary Clinton for her opposition to the name of the Washington Redskins football team.
If you'll permit me a personal note on Election Eve (and if you won't permit it, feel free to stop reading now!):
Over the weekend, New York Times reporter Michael Barbaro wrote the following squib, "In 1 Unscripted Moment, Hillary Clinton Finds Joy in the Rain," which for reasons both unsurprising and only known to the editors, the Grey Lady saw fit to print:
With fewer than 24 hours until Election Day polls open, the race for control of the United States Senate is as tight as can be. Republicans face substantial structural challenges. They are defending more seats this cycle, and the nomination of Donald Trump has turned a winnable presidential…
Suppose, for a moment, that Donald Trump is elected president Tuesday evening. It seems unlikely, but is not impossible; and we've faced the apocalypse a couple of times in recent memory.
A savvy (if somewhat sadistic) friend writes:
On election eve, just how long are the odds that Evan McMullin will be our next president? The former CIA agent and independent conservative candidate has ballot access in just 43 states—32 in which his name is actually on the ballot and another 11 that allows his name to be written in. Despite the…
As more and more of Hillary Clinton's emails come to light, previously obscure connections with and influences on Clinton during her tenure as secretary of state have also arisen. The latest batch of emails revealed one such case involving Clinton's daughter Chelsea and, by extension, the Clinton…
There's a reason presidents are wary of campaigning actively to elect their successor. Presidents are the past. Presidential candidates are the future. Presidents can raise money and draw crowds at campaign events. But speeches? That's asking for trouble.
"I never vote for anyone. I always vote against." –W.C. Fields
Three days hence those Americans not too lazy, or not seriously unhappy with the choice before them, will join the 37 million who have already voted. Hillary Clinton is hoping they will have taken on board Friday's jobs report. The economy added 161,000 jobs in October, and the reports for the past…
Greenville, N.C.
Editor William Kristol's weekly Kristol Clear podcast, where Kristol makes his final predictions for the (seemingly never-ending) 2016 presidential race.
A new poll of likely voters in Indiana finds Republican Senate candidate Todd Young leading his Democratic rival, former senator Evan Bayh, by five points. The new survey from WTHR and Howey Politics Indiana found Young, a three-term congressman, with 46 percent support, while Bayh has 41 percent…
One of the more humorous aspects of the Hillary Clinton email kerfuffle has been the former secretary of state's penchant for asking various staffers to print out her emails (the federal government's Paperwork Reduction Act notwithstanding) with the short instruction "Pls print." A search for the…
Marco Rubio, Paul Ryan, and Kelly Ayotte, and of all you desperate GOP candidates, threading the needle between a working class base in thrall to a demagogue and another fairly large bloc that detests him: Ike feels your pain. So does John Kennedy, and a very large group of the best and the…
The WEEKLY STANDARD Podcast with senior writer John McCormack on the potential path to victory for Donald Trump.
Hanover, N.H.
This has not been an especially ennobling election. Or a rewarding one. Or even entertaining. Pretty much everything about 2016 has been boorish and grotesque. But finally it is time to laugh.
Showing 200 of 2,537 articles. Use search to find more.