Politics

Four or five years ago, Mr. Lockhart said in an interview, he would have had to phone a reporter to weigh in, and the mainstream press, acting as gatekeeper, might or might not have quoted him. Now, “there’s the ability for people to have their own platforms,” he said. “I tweeted it, and got back […]

Hi. Welcome to On Politics, your guide to the day in national politics. I’m Lisa Lerer, your host. Sign up here to get On Politics in your inbox every weekday. Have the Russians already won? That’s the question my colleague Reid Epstein and I were discussing this morning as we looked at the presidential candidates’

Mr. Franken believed Judge Stras was too conservative and feared the Trump administration would use his appointment to the Eighth Circuit to build a case to nominate him to the Supreme Court. He wasn’t alone: Judge Stras’s nomination was opposed by many civil rights, abortion rights and human rights organizations, which raised questions about his

NEW DELHI — President Trump lashed out at two liberal Supreme Court justices on Tuesday, escalating his battle with the judicial system to new heights despite entreaties by his attorney general to refrain from Twitter blasts that complicate the administration’s legal fights. Weighing in on a domestic matter before embarking on a day of ceremony

But he had clearly anticipated an opportunity for the reveal, because he had a piece of paper ready to pull out of his pocket. “I thought that question might come up. All right. Here it is,” he said. “This is a list, which will be on our website tonight, of how we pay for every

For the past 18 months, Ginni Thomas, the wife of Justice Clarence Thomas, and other conservatives have plied the White House with memos and suggestions about which people to fire — and who should replace them. President Trump has generally treated Ms. Thomas’s suggestions coolly, passing them off to advisers, according to people familiar with

The MSNBC star Chris Matthews issued an unusual apology to Senator Bernie Sanders on Monday night, a moment of humility for the veteran “Hardball” anchor after days of mounting criticism from allies of Mr. Sanders, the front-runner in the Democratic presidential race. Mr. Matthews, who has a reputation for pugnacious commentary, drew fire from Sanders

Some U.S. officials have argued that expelling journalists runs counter to the American principle of freedom of the press. Tensions between the United States and China have been high, largely because of President Trump’s trade war. The two countries reached an initial trade deal in December, but American national security officials have continued to push

WASHINGTON — Senator Mitch McConnell is about to plunge the Senate into the nation’s culture wars with votes on bills to sharply restrict access to late-term abortions and threaten some doctors who perform them with criminal penalties, signaling that Republicans plan to make curbing a woman’s right to terminate a pregnancy a central theme of

The Supreme Court, which heard arguments in October about the fate of one of the men who terrorized the Washington region in the fall of 2002 with deadly sniper attacks, has been asked not to decide the case after all. Lawyers for the man, Lee Malvo, and prosecutors in Virginia submitted a letter to the