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CHARLIE SYKES: Is Disqualifying Trump Anti-Democratic?
JOE PERTICONE: Congress Is Still Writing 2023 on Its Checks
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A.B. STODDARD: Christie Can’t Endorse Haley Now
SHOCK REVERBERATED ACROSS the political landscape after Nikki Haley’s deliberate omission of “slavery” when asked the cause of the Civil War. Starting on the night of December 27, when Haley gave her answer, and continuing well into the next day, reactions were swift and abundant—from television to tweets, from Joe Biden, Ron DeSantis, Vivek Ramaswamy, the DNC, outraged liberals, and the online MAGA voices who never trusted Haley.
But Chris Christie was, for hours, conspicuously silent.
Perhaps Christie was spending that morning fielding calls, texts, and emails from frantic establishment Republicans who want Haley to face Trump alone in the coming primary contests.
🎥 PODCASTS AND VIDEOS 🎧
Bulwark Podcast with Charlie Sykes: Will Saletan: The Guts to Tell the Truth [Ad-Free🔐]
Just Between Us: 2024: Time to Gird Our Loins 🔐
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WILLIAM KRISTOL AND JEFFREY K. TULIS: The Threat from Trump Today Is Worse Than on January 6th
OUR DEMOCRACY SURVIVED January 6, 2021.
Three years ago, the United States came closer to a presidential usurpation than at any previous time in American history. Never before had a sitting president attempted to retain power after losing an election. Never before had a sitting president called on a mob to attack the Capitol.
Still: Congress was not prevented from carrying out its duties. The transfer of executive power was completed as scheduled on January 20, 2021, despite the violence and insurrection. Donald Trump left the White House. The guardrails held.
KIMBERLY WEHLE: The Huge Legal Questions Ahead in 2024.
WELCOME TO 2024—a year that means life or death for American democracy.
The legal questions that will be in the news this year are legion and epic. It is difficult even for lawyers to keep things straight, partly because Donald J. Trump has pushed the boundaries of the Constitution and the rule of law beyond where any president or former president has ever dared.
🚨OVERTIME🚨
Happy New Year! Let’s not talk about Ohio State’s abysmal loss to Missouri, or why Ryan Day should be fired. Instead, let’s talk about another Ryan who is near and dear to Ohio football fans. The late, great Dr. Frank Ryan, the last quarterback to win a championship with the Cleveland Browns. Here’s his highlight reel.
He died yesterday at the age of 87. And he was one of my favorite Browns QBs—and we have had a glut of them since the 1980s—and not just because he was a winner. Go read this old SI profile of him, it’s great. The guy’s brilliant.
The reason why I really like Dr. Ryan is because of what he did after football: He helped modernize Congress, having devised the way the now House votes, by computer. A system that they still use to this day. Every time I am in the House chamber and they’re voting, I think of Dr. Ryan, and I always will.
You could spend an evening going down his wormhole, so be careful. I’ve picked the best two reads for you, but there are others! I had hoped that if the Browns somehow make it to the Super Bowl, a feat they’ve never accomplished since its creation, that Ryan could see it. Alas, it was not to be. But how about Joe Flacco, huh? (Jimmy Haslam should sell the team, I maintain.)
Quite the business model you have there… Friend of the newsletter Andrew Beaujon, a local journalist himself, documents his experience with the Washington Post.
Kari Lake is in deep, deep trouble… with judge's refusal to dismiss defamation lawsuit.
Energy healers? In this Biden economy? One wonders whether the WSJ editorial board reads its own paper. Rich people, man.
Mutiny Erupts in a Michigan G.O.P…. Overtaken by Chaos.
Jeremy Renner almost died last New Year’s Day… Since then he’s been leaning into life.
The dogs… Of 2023.
Omar Vizquel speaks out… The former Indian and HoF hopeful talks to the press for the first time since a pair of incidents that cratered his Cooperstown hopes.
Universities Are Prioritizing Their Health Systems Over Teaching... That’s Killing Academic Freedom.
Don’t tell the J6 conspiracy theorists… But Ray Epps might be seeing the inside of a jail cell.
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