Opinion

Late on Thursday night, BuzzFeed News dropped a bombshell report alleging that, finally, there's documentary evidence of Donald Trump committing a crime.

If you look at polling during the Trump era, it becomes clear that researchers have discovered that many voters are misinformed  about the president. Many actually believe that Donald Trump is a massively successful self-made billionaire. His lifelong penchant for hype and the exposure he got from the scripted reality show "The Apprentice" convinced many people that he was a tremendously gifted businessman.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi clearly hit a nerve this week when she rescinded President Donald Trump’s invitation to deliver the State of the Union to Congress. On Thursday, after surprising observers by remaining silent on the issue, Trump released a letter announcing that he had canceled military arrangements for an international trip that would have taken her to Brussels, Egypt, and Afghanistan, where she would have visited military personnel.

As the Senate Judiciary Committee holds its confirmation hearings for William Barr, the current nominee for Attorney General of the United States, it is clear Barr needs to brush up on his constitutional law, as well as U.S. history.

Since taking power in the House of Representatives, Democratic leadership has had a singular response to questions about whether President Donald Trump should be impeached: Let's wait until Special Counsel Robert Mueller files his report.

According to reports last weekend, the FBI first began to suspect Trump was working for Russia when he fired FBI Director James Comey in May of 2017. “Counterintelligence investigators had to consider whether the president’s own actions constituted a possible threat to national security,” The New York Times reported. “Agents also sought to determine whether Mr. Trump was knowingly working for Russia or had unwittingly fallen under Moscow’s influence.”

Friday, January 11 marked the first day of 2019 in which roughly 800,000 federal workers missed a paycheck they would have otherwise received were it not for the partial shutdown of the federal government. Those workers fall into two main categories: (1) workers who have been furloughed, and (2) workers who perform what are considered essential services and must report to work without a definite pay date. Deprived of a paycheck, many of them are wondering how they’re going to pay their bills. But to hear White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett tell it, they are “better off” because of the shutdown.

On Tuesday, in a transparent bid to prevent ordinary Americans -- and especially private businesses -- from feeling the effects of the government shutdown, Donald Trump ordered tens of thousands of federal employees to return to work with no pay and no immediate hope of getting paid.

Brexit is beginning to look a lot like an “escape room” with no exit.

The New York Times' Michael Schmidt reported a year ago that back in March of 2017, President Trump was steaming mad that Attorney General Jeff Sessions had recused himself from any inquiry into the Russian interference in the election.

“I started off in Washington at the Central Intelligence Agency and went to law school at night while I was working at CIA,” recalled William Barr in a 2001 oral history for the University of Virginia.

Psychologists have explained quite a lot about Donald Trump ’s political invincibility and the unconditional allegiance of his followers. One well-supported explanation is that the president keeps his base loyal by keeping them fearful. Through persistent fear-mongering, with scary messages like, “Illegal immigrants are murderers and rapists,” and “Islam hates us,” Trump gets to play the role of the great protector.

President Donald Trump’s efforts to exert control over the Justice Department — one of the few bodies left that can assert a real check on his power and corruption — have been an ongoing crisis and scandal during his time in office. In that context, his nomination of former Attorney General William Barr to retake the top position at the head of the department warrants extreme scrutiny.