Joe Biden

President Joe Biden's statement Friday that social media giants were "killing people" by propagating anti-vaccine content sent conservative media into a meltdown, but in railing on its recent hobby horse, the White House certainly has one fact right: far-right content, especially anti-vax messages, performs very well on these platforms. Especially Facebook.

But one savvy move in particular by the Biden team this week appears to have significantly cut into that lead: a White House appearance Wednesday by the pop star Olivia Rodrigo to promote COVID-19 vaccination.

The "Big Lie" by Trump supporters continues to grow, even more than half a year after the January 6th insurrection by Trump supporters seeking to overturn the results.

Joe Biden conclusively won the election, receiving 306 Electoral Votes, while Trump only received 232.

When Donald Trump defeated all of the other Republican candidates in the 2016 GOP presidential primary and went on to defeat Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in the general election — even though he lost the popular vote — one of the people who was celebrating was paleoconservative Patrick Buchanan, who realized that Trumpism was Buchananism. This week in an in-depth essay for The Bulwark, Never Trump conservative Brian Stewart examines Buchanan's influence on Trumpism, which has replaced Reaganism as the dominant philosophy of the Republican Party. And Stewart argues that Trump has, in essence, turned the party of Ronald Reagan into the party of Patrick Buchanan.

The New York City-based Stewart writes, "Picture this: In a clash and clang of antagonism toward the Republican establishment, a sizable portion of the base of the party congeals around a vociferous, divisive figure…. This rambunctious tribune repudiates both the substance and style of the Republican Party — for decades the vessel for the conservative program — including its vigorous support for free trade and a decent international order…. His speeches infuriate both the Democrats and the GOP establishment, which only cements his bond with the base. Not Donald Trump in 2016, but Pat Buchanan in 1992."

According to a report from CNN, high-ranking officials in the Arizona Republican Party fear any chance they might have had of reclaiming a U.S. Senate seat has been irreparably crippled by the highly-criticized audit of the 2020 presidential ballots in Maricopa country at the behest of former president Donald Trump.

With reports trickling out that the months-long controversial audit uncovered no evidence of widescale fraud that denied Trump the state's 11 electoral votes, Republican campaign consultants worry that a campaign against Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) will fall flat because the eventual nominee will undoubtedly have to spend precious time explaining away the failed venture.

In conversations with attendees at Family Leadership Summit in Des Moines, Iowa, the Boston Globe's James Pindell found plenty of evangelicals who approved of Donald Trump's four years in office after voting for him, but want him to stay out of the 2024 presidential race.

With Trump making rumblings about running once again after losing to President Joe Biden, Pindell wrote that he talked to 15 self-admitted Trump voters and not a single one expressed any interest in voting for the one-term president again.

A US federal judge on Friday dealt a fresh blow to an immigration program protecting undocumented migrants brought to the country as children, ruling it unlawful and blocking the enrollment of new applicants.

Instituted by former president Barack Obama in 2012, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) covers around 700,000 people known as Dreamers. For many, America is the only country they have ever known.

President Joe Biden said Friday that social media misinformation about Covid-19 and vaccinations is "killing people" and the White House said Facebook needs to clean up its act.

"They're killing people. The only pandemic we have is among the unvaccinated. And they're killing people," Biden told reporters at the White House, as he left for a weekend at the presidential retreat in Camp David.

President Joe Biden's suggestion that Washington bring full internet access to Cuba following government restrictions could break new ground on digital rights but face major technical and geopolitical hurdles.

Biden's statement followed calls by Republican Senator Marco Rubio and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who said the US should look at satellites, balloons and offshore hotspots to deliver unfiltered connectivity to Cuba.

Late Friday night, former president Donald Trump issued a furious statement attacking Fox News, among other media outlets, for reporting there is no evidence of massive voter fraud in Arizona's Maricopa County.

According to the Associated Press, "Arizona county election officials have identified fewer than 200 cases of potential voter fraud out of more than 3 million ballots cast in last year's presidential election, further discrediting former President Donald Trump's claims of a stolen election."

Although former President Donald Trump was decisively voted out of office in 2020 and has been gone from the White House for almost six months, he continues to be the most influential figure in the Republican Party. Countless GOP politicians are afraid to publicly say a word against him, and his MAGA rallies still attract unquestioning, cult-like followers. Wall Street Journal reporter Michael C. Bender examines the type of MAGA devotees who faithfully attend those rallies in an excerpt from his book, "Frankly, We Did Win This Election: The Inside Story of How Trump Lost."

The Washington Post published an excerpt from the book this week, and in the excerpt, Bender discusses a "group of Trump's most hardcore rallygoers" known as the Front Row Joes.