Appreciate that Jill Lepore used "The Ubiquitous Presidency" to help make sense of why the president communicates the way he does for her @newyorker.com article. @kcoe.bsky.social and I wrote our book to help people make sense of contemporary political leadership and messaging.

UC’s Academic Council calls on the Office of the President & the UC Board of Regents to unequivocally reject governmental demands that compromise institutional autonomy and #academicfreedom. This is the way. #DefendHigherEd

Special issue of Political Communication CFP on "the political communication dynamics at work in democratic decline—and in democratic resilience" - full manuscripts due December 15. think.taylorandfrancis.com/special_issu...

Strib coverage is in front of their paywall. Please follow their coverage and resist the urge to speculate about *anything* about the attack itself. www.startribune.com/brooklyn-par...

The news isn’t being clear about this but to people hearing about these Minnesota shootings: Melissa Hortman is the Dem leader in the Minnesota House and was Speaker of the House 2019-2025. She’s probably the most influential state-level Democrat barring the governor.

A DHS official told me Noem & security had no idea who Senator Padilla was. Now, the FBI is running with the statement that the senator "did not identify himself and was not wearing his senate security pin" — but he very much did identify himself, loudly, on video...

We drill into military officers that Members of Congress have Constitutional oversight rights, Members outrank four-stars in protocol, and even Congressional staffers are treated like generals/admirals. To see sworn federal officers manhandle and handcuff a U.S. Senator... I'm still shook up.

"If you saw all this in any other country — soldiers sent to crush dissent, union leaders arrested, opposition politicians threatened — it would be clear that autocracy had arrived."

This sounds unlawful as hell. apnews.com/article/mari...

The targeting of reporters in LA is inexcusable. The public interest in press coverage of protests couldn’t be more self-evident. We helped lead this letter to remind federal officers of journalists’ constitutional right to report on civil unrest. media.freedom.press/media/docume...

The deploying of American military into U.S. cities is an attempt to functionally curtail the right to peacefully assemble and protest for a redress of grievances. LA seems to be the prototype to attempt to tamp down the possibility of nationwide protests.

Law enforcement is violently targeting press at protests around Los Angeles, from easily recognizable "mainstream" outlets to freelancers and independents. ALL press have explicit legal protections in California. #JournalismIsNotACrime. This evidence thread may get graphic. 🧵👇

1 in 12 Americans live in California. 1 in 35 Americans live in LA County. LA is America

What's happening in LA is a redux of the federal invasion of Portland. It took a 'Wall of Moms' using their privilege to protect more marginalized protesters to turn that around. www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol...

Cuts have consequences, illustrated. As seen on TV 📺

New: Trump is posting to Truth Social three times as often as he tweeted during his first presidency - 2,262 'truths' in 132 days. Outrageously false stuff, too, like that Biden was executed in 2020 and replaced by a robot clone. 3 a.m. polemics at a pace surprising even his aides wapo.st/43HBtpb

This is literally an authoritarian using the power of the state to jail an opponent, and attempt to intimidate all other opponents, in the United States of America. This doesn't happen if the US is still a democracy

Journalists: Report the pattern, not just the episode. DOJ charges a sitting Member of Legislative branch. Follows DOJ charges against a sitting member of Judicial Branch. The Executive is at war with the separation of powers in service of expanding its unilateral power.

Another update: I can't share the text of my appeal but MIT's OGC has said they are happy to connect with OGC at other institutions going through the appeal process. So if you are planning to appeal, DM me and I can make the connection.

From Jeffrey Toobin's 2008 book THE NINE, this remains the greatest Justice Souter anecdote I can possibly share. RIP.

Press freedom in the United States has hit a record low, according to the latest World Press Freedom Index published annually by Reporters Without Borders.

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To read the Criminal Complaint and attached FBI Affidavit that gave rise to Wisconsin State Judge Hannah Dugan’s federal criminal arrest today for obstructing or impeding a proceeding before a department or agency of the United States and concealing an individual to prevent his discovery and arrest

U.S. enters the political influencer era online. Discussed with @juanbennjr.bsky.social at @politico.com the implications for Democrats who lack a unifying national figure at this moment.

'“If we’re going for going to mobilize, it’s going to be the most prominent, the most well-endowed, the most privileged and protected of us in civil society who have to take the lead,” Levitsky said.'

Thirty-eight of 43 experts cut last month from the boards that review the science and research that happens in laboratories at the National Institutes of Health are female, Black or Hispanic, according to an analysis by the chairs of a dozen of the boards.

SCOOP: sources tell me that the State Dept plans to eliminate its only office to counter foreign disinformation, as soon as today, delivering a win to foreign governments like Russia, Iran, and China—and the office's mostly conservative critics. www.technologyreview.com/2025/04/16/1...

The call for papers for the APSA Political Communication Preconference in Vancouver is now open! Together with @ashleymuddiman.bsky.social and @patyrossini.bsky.social, we're thrilled to invite your submissions. 📅: May 25th, 2025, 11.59pm PDT (GMT-7) More information: u.osu.edu/apsa2025/

May this be a lesson to every higher education institution about what compliance will entail.

New on @MSNBC: The White House will not release the list of 75 countries that have reached out on trade deals, despite requests from NBC News.

Before he headed back home from USF, we sat down with @esserfrank.bsky.social for "By Conduct and Example" to pick his brain about the 2024 U.S. election and next steps for the study and preservation of democracy and communication.

We hang together or we hang separately. Could not be clearer what is happening and how universities must respond.

In two years he will have to go up for post-tenure review under new provisions set by the legislature and governor for all public tenured faculty in Florida. Let’s see how that process shakes out.

“Public Service and a Cause Greater than Oneself” will explore Dr. Novello’s consequential moments leading and participating in significant public health campaigns on behalf of the United States. Dr. Novello also will sign copies of her book "Duty Calls." Looking forward to hosting Dr. Novello!

Dean Chemerinsky and other #lawschool deans "speak as legal educators, responsible for training the next generation of lawyers, in condemning any government efforts to punish lawyers or their firms based on the identity of their clients or for their zealous lawful and ethical advocacy."

Administration: This Signal stuff was no big deal. Like the nothingest of nothing burgers. Atlantic: Hold my beer for the attack plans texted by the SecDef.

Also coincidentally in the same period when Benjamin Harrison interrupted Grover Cleveland’s two terms in office 🤔

The last time Lancaster County elected a Democrat to the Pennsylvania Senate was in 1889, when John S. Hoover won a special election. 136 years later, James Malone joins the club.

Why are people complacent about democratic backsliding? Ralph Hertwig and I explain based on decision science research showing how and why people underweight rare events theconversation.com/the-paradox-... of interest @profsanderlinden.bsky.social @brendannyhan.bsky.social @adamberinsky.bsky.social

Understanding current leadership approaches requires an understanding of attention environment dynamics. CSD director @joshscacco.bsky.social explains to @politico.com how attention management is critical to President Trump’s messaging approaches.

How can we understand messaging from Trump 2.0? Drew from a decade of research on leadership comms and the presidency for this @politico.com interview with @juanbennjr.bsky.social. Dropped some Taylor and Beyoncé too in noting the “Trump tease” is not novel.

Virtually every leading First Amendment scholar in the country--conservative and liberal--has joined this statement warning that the Trump administration's threats to Columbia University risk deterring and suppressing constitutionally protected speech.

Excellent excellent excellent from Princeton president and constitutional/ political theorist Chris Eisgruber. There's been far too little of this kind of thing; here's hoping others follow his good example. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

Columbia caving on this stuff would invite Trump to do this all over the country on anti-Israel protests, transgender athletes, climate change, etc. Hold the line and contest this in court.

I know this first hand. When I was a child, my entire community was branded as spies and sabateurs, justifying our internment inside barbed wire camps for years without due process, trial or charge.

The Department of Justice was created in 1870 with an explicit mission to protect civil rights and enforce the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments. The DOJ went after the Klan hard, securing thousands of indictments and 600+ convictions within the first year alone. How about restoring *that* focus?

"Columbia will remain the college of no king." Sensible, sober, and wise counsel on how universities should respond to the Trump administration. By Carnegie, @pagefortna.bsky.social, Isiksel, Murillo, and @profsaunders.bsky.social, and courtesy of @dandrezner.bsky.social