“Republicans like Johnson were doing everything but reflecting on the national mood. Whether they’re all in on the MAGA project of reshaping government and American life or just frightened of offending Trump, they are duty-bound to avoid that sort of thing.” www.thebulwark.com/p/republican...

Thanks, Jay. And I agree with your praise for the Claremont students.

For years, Russell Moore (@drmoore.bsky.social) has raised his voice against darkness and sophistry. He has done so at some personal cost. A highly valuable voice in our country. www.christianitytoday.com/2025/11/nazi...

"The current state of American capitalism isn’t sustainable. It doesn’t deserve to be sustained. And the best way to avoid an American version of “eat the rich” is to fix the current “let them eat cake” distortion of capitalism into which we’ve fallen." www.thebulwark.com/p/let-them-e...

"You don’t have to be a wild-eyed leftist to think all of this has a pre-French Revolution vibe. It feels like a 'let them eat cake' moment—and that’s to say nothing about the Trumpist kleptocracy that competes every day for headlines with our Muskian plutocracy." open.substack.com/pub/thebulwa...

Abolish Border Patrol.

"Former West Virginia coal miners with black lung drove to protest on the steps of the Labor Department...They held up photographs of dead friends and loved ones...On the opposite side of the building, an enormous banner with Trump’s face read 'American Workers First.'” apnews.com/article/blac...

"There’s One Weird Trick that can help cure stagflation...a cut in tariffs. It’s tariffs that are driving prices up. And it’s tariffs that are dragging growth down...If the justices decide to undermine Trump’s economic agenda, they’ll be doing him a favor." www.thebulwark.com/p/how-the-su...

"Starting in the spring and then escalating over the summer, President Donald Trump sent federal troops or 'called up' National Guard units to Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., Memphis, Portland, and Chicago...The Founders would be appalled." www.thebulwark.com/p/founders-t...

Lovely piece by @tribelaw.bsky.social "My parents’ struggle for freedom lives in the symbol of the nation my dad chose. A symbol my mother helped him hide in a prison camp. A symbol of hope, a symbol of freedom, of a place where all are equal before the law." www.thebulwark.com/p/my-fathers...

Listen, my children, as here is unfurled The story of the sandwich that was hurled On the 10th of August in ‘25; What a moment to be alive! As many chose to look down and duck, One man decided he had to stand up, And so he wound up, and said ‘What the f___’ And gave his sandwich a freedom chuck.

“We always been a different sort of media company…We put very few products behind a paywall. We give free memberships to anyone who can’t afford it. We are infinitely more interested in saving democracy than increasing revenue.” open.substack.com/pub/thebulwa...

Patel argues his predecessor, unlike himself, really misused FBI planes. Others consider him a flaming hypocrite. A fuller understanding of just how often Patel is using the jet and for what purposes would help. The latest False Flag from @willsommer.bsky.social: www.thebulwark.com/p/kash-patel...

Tuesday night's data points sparked a frenzy of conversations about what other seats could be in play in such a political climate. Even, possibly, Senate seats Dems once had no hope for. www.thebulwark.com/p/democrats-...

"Govern effectively, get shit done, show people you're making their lives better, and demonstrate how the extremism and the chaos of Donald Trump is making their lives worse." @governor.pa.gov talks tips for Dems with @sarahlongwell25.bsky.social:

Get ready: Receipts, our new economic newsletter from @crampell.bsky.social, is dropping the first edition tonight! Subscribe now to get it in your inbox: www.thebulwark.com/subscribe

“Fuentes sneered at Roberts’ sweaty contortions, reaffirmed his own movement’s dedication to taking on ‘world Jewry,’ and promised that 2028 would be the year the groypers started to really flex their political might. Now that, folks, is a ‘venomous coalition.’” www.thebulwark.com/p/heres-what...

Here, if people are interested, is a wide-ranging interview with a couple of Claremont students from a month ago. A little on contemporary politics and on Trump and on Mamdani, a little on conservatism and liberalism, a little on liberal education. www.cmcforum.com/post/bill-kr...

“'Happy Days Are Here Again' was Franklin D. Roosevelt’s campaign jingle in 1932 and became the ballad of the Democratic party for the next several decades, until it was retired as too old-school at the party’s 1992 convention. Maybe it’s time to bring it back." www.thebulwark.com/p/vive-la-re...

“He started out as a rising star in Republican politics…And he ended up denouncing President Trump. And he remained pretty much the same person throughout it all. It was his party and conservatism that changed.” www.nytimes.com/2025/11/05/u...

"The most memorable line from Mamdani’s victory speech last night, the one that got the loudest cheers, was this: 'New York will remain a city of immigrants, a city built by immigrants, powered by immigrants—and, as of tonight, led by an immigrant.'” www.thebulwark.com/p/vive-la-re...

"Still, we can look ahead to not just 2026 but 2028. We can see a Democratic convention that will have nominated Spanberger and Sherrill (or will it be Sherrill and Spanberger?—they’ll have to work that out!). And Josh Shapiro and Zohran Mamdani clasping hands..." www.thebulwark.com/p/vive-la-re...

"Yesterday showed us what a wave election looks like. And what was the best predictor of the vote, and the source of the wave? Donald Trump. Take a look at the correlation of his approval rating in the exit polls and the actual vote. This bodes well for 2026." www.thebulwark.com/p/vive-la-re...

Just wrote an upbeat (!) Morning Shots. I mean, if not today, when? We should relish this moment. For a few hours. Because we should realize that these results are going to make the Trump administration even more aggressive about tilting the 2026 playing field, and we need to be ready for that.

My inner social democrat enjoyed Zohran Mamdani quoting Eugene Debs last night. I vaguely recall my then-even-more-suppressed inner social democrat being pleased in 1990 when Debs was inducted during the first Bush administration into the Labor Department's Hall of Honor. www.dol.gov/general/abou...

The election analyst has entered the chat.

No more guesses in the future. Quitting while ahead. (I should do that, but I'm sure I won't be able to resist...)

Three more hours to vote.

This morning, Ron Brownstein, Wolf Blitzer, and I discussed today's elections and the career of Dick Cheney. nam11.safelinks.protection.outlook.com?url=https%3A...

“I think I will long remember the sight of Liz Cheney and Dick Cheney, absolutely alone on the Republican side of the House chamber. This was during the commemoration of the January 6 attack on the first anniversary…” open.substack.com/pub/jaynordl...

This morning @jvl.bsky.social and I discussed Dick Cheney’s extraordinary and admirable public life, from Ford’s COS to House minority whip to Sec Def to VP—and then to being one of the few leaders of his generation to see the threat of Trump clearly, and to act on it. youtu.be/gZVx2qdX9L4?...

Some people can’t understand that the Democratic Party is a coalition of groups and the Republican Party is a ideological based party, and they insist on applying Republican structure on to Democrats

"At a time when many lost their voice, he was courageous and clear in his denunciation of the man and the movement that now threatens the well-being and future of the nation he loved." @billkristolbulwark.bsky.social on Dick Cheney: www.thebulwark.com/p/trump-is-r...

Here's Matt Labash's great 2008 Weekly Standard piece, Fly Fishing With Darth Vader. "I learned that Cheney, whatever my objection to his policies, was a fine fisherman, a gentleman, a master smack-talker, and a guy who wasn’t bothered by what people think of him." open.substack.com/pub/mattlaba...

We'll be LIVE starting at 8pm to discuss today's election results! Tune in on YouTube or Substack and join @jvl.bsky.social, @samsteindc.bsky.social, @billkristolbulwark.bsky.social, @sarahlongwell25.bsky.social, @timmiller.bsky.social, and @lauren-egan.bsky.social!

"Dick Cheney—a man I admired and was proud to consider a friend—has died at age 84. I honor his life, and mourn his death. What a life! He held so many positions of the highest responsibility in government, and carried them out with conviction and distinction..." open.substack.com/pub/thebulwa...

A long conversation here with Dick Cheney, from Oct. 2014. I think people might find it interesting, even revealing--about Dick himself, how he thought about his public career, the different eras in which he played a role and those he worked with. conversationswithbillkristol.org/conversation...

FWIW, my final guesses re VA results: Spanberger +12% Hashmi +10% Jones +3% HOD: Dems 60-40 (current 51-49)

Find Virginia polling location: www.elections.virginia.gov/casting-a-ba... Check Virginia registration status: vote.elections.virginia.gov/VoterInforma... Virginia same-day registration info: www.elections.virginia.gov/registration...

Trump's corruption is so large it's in the "it's a statistic" territory, and crypto is a great way to do corruption in a way that ordinary people and even most pundits and journalists don't greatly understand. @billkristolbulwark.bsky.social joins @timmiller.bsky.social on today's Bulwark Podcast:

It can often feel like influential party figures are more invested in fighting each other rather than going after Trump. www.thebulwark.com/p/they-dread...

In light of the Trump administration ignoring yesterday's War Powers deadline for Congressional authorization of their ongoing use of military force, re-upping @rgoodlaw.bsky.social's excellent explanation Sunday of why this matters and what it (ominously) implies. www.youtube.com/live/lUeaFCu...

"The gang leader ‘Gold Hat' responds: 'Badges? We don't need no badges!' In the United States by contrast the authorities act with the sanction of law. That was then. The Trump administration is now. The Trump administration believes it doesn’t need no badges." www.thebulwark.com/p/under-trum...

Bill Kristol: Fake News on '60 Minutes'

“Jean-Paul Sartre once wrote that bad faith is not ignorance but refusal, the conscious act of pretending not to know what one knows, a form of spiritual cowardice disguised as moral surety. The absurdity is the point, it liberates him from the burden of coherence…” open.substack.com/pub/theratio...

Today, Trump-Hegseth run out of time on War Powers Resolution and boat strikes. DOJ has come up with a theory why the law does not apply. It's wrong, and per this article, several GOP Senators and a Trump cabinet member flat rejected that theory when Obama tried it in 2011. 🧵 1/

No no, they look like they’re in Kandahar circa 2012. The Marines cleared Fallujah in way more budget gear, no fancy plate carriers or high-cut helmets. Except for the masks. The masks make them look like Iraqi National Police sectarian hit squads in 2006 Iraq.

Tim and I discuss CBS's editing of Trump on 60 minutes, Trump's corrumption, how opposing Trump can united Dems of left and center, and why 2026 will be a referendum on Trump. Plus: Tim's shocking ignorance about the 1948 movie classic, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. youtu.be/syYGB0fNe1s?...

Elon Musk endorses Cuomo for mayor of New York and makes sure to add some racism in there: “…Mumdumi or whatever his name is.”

“National socialism is not compatible with democracy. Because the national socialist views businesses as allies or opponents of the regime, it cannot countenance the opposition taking power. National socialism is incompatible with political pluralism.” open.substack.com/pub/thebulwa...