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Steve Benen

@stevebenen.com

61K followers 150 following 1.9K posts

Rachel Maddow Show producer, MaddowBlog author, MSNBC contributor, and author of Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past

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Steve Benen @stevebenen.com · 5h

A few days ago, I wrote up a piece on Republicans routinely forgetting when Biden took office and how the problem seems to be getting worse: tinyurl.com/3bdxp3te

I suddenly wish I’d held off a few more days. (The “Biden FBI” didn’t exist on Jan. 6. Trump was president at the time.)

Steve Benen @stevebenen.com · 1d

Trump obviously didn’t get the Nobel Peace Prize he spent months begging for — but there’s always next year.

To be helpful, I put together a Top 10 list of steps he should take (but almost certainly won’t) if wants to compete for the 2026 honor. www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddo...

The top 10 things Trump should consider doing if he wants a Nobel Peace Prize next year

The president begged for the honor but didn’t get it. If he wants to try again next year, there are a variety of steps he can and should take.

Steve Benen @stevebenen.com · 2d

The phrase "don't threaten me with a good time" keeps coming to mind.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 2d

Thune: "If the Democrats had won the majority, they probably would've tried to nuke the filibuster. And then you'd have four new senators from Puerto Rico and DC, you'd have a packed Supreme Court, you'd have abortion on demand ... "

Steve Benen @stevebenen.com · 2d

Remember when several Republicans launched impeachment efforts against federal judges in response to rulings the White House didn’t like?

Jim Jordan — the chair of the House Judiciary Committee — isn’t ready to walk away from the idea. www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddo...

GOP’s Jim Jordan on judges: ‘I don’t think you should rule out impeachment’

Most Americans don’t want to see judges impeached over anti-Trump rulings. A key House Republican said it’s “on the table” anyway.

Steve Benen @stevebenen.com · 2d

The Letitia James and James Comey cases are two sides of the same coin:

Trump isn’t hiding his weaponization of the criminal justice system, he’s *flaunting* it, hoping to instill fear in critics and prosecutors.

The corruption is the point. www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddo...

The one thing the Letitia James and James Comey indictments have in common

Both cases are brazenly and transparently corrupt, for the sake of brazen and transparent corruption.

Steve Benen @stevebenen.com · 2d

When powerful federal officials, including those at the White House, start leaning on artists over song lyrics, there’s a problem.

The scope of Team Trump’s efforts to steer the culture make that problem worse. www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddo...

DHS’s Kristi Noem targets country singer over song with lyrics about ICE

When the federal government, including the White House, starts leaning on artists over song lyrics, there’s a problem.

Steve Benen @stevebenen.com · 3d

Pressed on possibly suspending habeas corpus, Trump said he’d leave it up to Kristi Noem.

Among the problems: Noem has already made clear that she has no idea what habeas corpus is. www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddo...

Trump’s line on possibly suspending habeas corpus goes from bad to worse

The president said he’d leave the future of habeas corpus up to Kristi Noem, who recently made clear that she didn’t know what habeas corpus was.

Steve Benen @stevebenen.com · 3d

Last week, the White House boasted that Trump “is a strong supporter of free speech.”

This week, the Republican declared, "We took the freedom of speech away." www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddo...

‘We took the freedom of speech away’: On First Amendment, Trump says quiet part loud

A week after the White House boasted that Trump “is a strong supporter of free speech,” the president’s legal gibberish pointed in the opposite direction.

Steve Benen @stevebenen.com · 3d

After four years of absurd claims about a Democratic administration “targeting” Christians, one thing seems obvious:

We’re overdue for a public conversation about the severity — and the frequency — of the Trump administration's clashes with the faith community. www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddo...

Team Trump’s clashes with the faith community go from bad to worse

The political world is overdue for a conversation about the severity of the conflicts between the Republican administration and the faith community.

Steve Benen @stevebenen.com · 3d

I get what you're saying, and there was only so much I could fit into the tweet.

By "status quo," I was referring to Christian ministers who were subjected to ICE abuse as documented in my post.

Steve Benen @stevebenen.com · 3d

Patel firing another group of FBI special agents without cause is ridiculous.

But don’t overlook the fact that he also just shut down a federal corruption unit — the latest in a series of moves intended to undo the federal infrastructure that was used to combat corruption.

Kash Patel fires yet another group of FBI agents without cause, shutters corruption group

The Republicans’ “Arctic Frost” controversy has largely collapsed under scrutiny. It led the FBI to fire at least three special agents anyway.

Steve Benen @stevebenen.com · 3d

We’re overdue for a public conversation about the Trump administration's dramatic conflicts with the faith community.

Pam Bondi recently claimed that Biden “abused and targeted Christians,” but that more accurately describes the status quo, not the recent past. www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddo...

Team Trump’s clashes with the faith community go from bad to worse

The political world is overdue for a conversation about the severity of the conflicts between the Republican administration and the faith community.

Steve Benen @stevebenen.com · 3d

On the White House’s WIC plan, we’re not supposed to have a system in which a president can:

- impose his own tax without Congress

- create his own pile of money that Congress never approved

- allocate funds, at his discretion, to whichever cause he deems fit, without Congress

White House announces radical new plan to allocate tariff revenue without Congress

The Constitution gives Congress what’s known as the “power of the purse.” When Trump tries to claim he has his own purse, there’s a problem.

Steve Benen @stevebenen.com · 4d

Republicans have spent the last few days claiming, with varying degrees of hysteria, that the Biden-era FBI was caught “spying” on GOP members and “tapping” their phones.

In reality, that's really not what happened. www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddo...

The latest Republican conspiracy theory about the FBI and Jan. 6 starts to unravel

Republicans are claiming that the FBI was caught “spying” on congressional Republicans and “tapping” their phones. That’s really not what happened.

Steve Benen @stevebenen.com · 4d

The “Republicans keep forgetting who was president in 2020” problem clearly isn’t going away.

It’s not a new problem — there are even examples from 2021 — but it’s arguably getting worse. www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddo...

Even now, Republicans are still struggling to remember who was president in 2020

One professor joked, “‘Who was president in 2020?’ is the question of our time.” The number of Republicans who can’t answer the question correctly is amazing.

Steve Benen @stevebenen.com · 4d

AG Pam Bondi was unprofessional and partisan, but most importantly, she was evasive, refusing to answer good questions she didn’t like.

Fortunately, Adam Schiff kept the receipts. www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddo...

AG Pam Bondi refused to answer key questions, and Adam Schiff kept the receipts

Over several hours, the attorney general was unprofessional and partisan, but most importantly, she was evasive, rejecting important lines of inquiry.

Steve Benen @stevebenen.com · 4d

Given football’s popularity, common sense might suggest Trump would be eager to align himself with the NFL.

He and his team are instead adding the league to their growing list of culture war targets. www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddo...

Trump and his team add the NFL to its growing list of culture war targets

Given football’s popularity, common sense might suggest the president would be eager to align himself with the league, but he can’t seem to help himself.

Steve Benen @stevebenen.com · 5d

Remember last year, when Trump promised voters, “I will never do anything that will jeopardize or hurt Social Security or Medicare”?

I have some bad news for those who believed him.

Rachel Maddow @maddow.msnbc.com · 5d

Reported Trump plan to cut more than 750,000 older Americans off disability:

www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddo...

Despite campaign promises, White House eyes new changes to Social Security and Medicare

“I will never do anything that will jeopardize or hurt Social Security or Medicare,” Trump vowed in 2024. I have bad news for voters who believed him.

Steve Benen @stevebenen.com · 5d

Not too long ago, it would’ve been pretty dramatic for an incumbent American president to refer to his opponents as “the party of Hate, Evil, and Satan.”

But as people grow accustomed to madness, it’s now barely a one-day story.

Rachel Maddow @maddow.msnbc.com · 5d

www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddo...

Trump pushes a new label for Democrats: ‘The Party Of Hate, Evil, And Satan’

Republicans apparently want Democrats to stop using the kind of incendiary political rhetoric that the president uses all the time.

Steve Benen @stevebenen.com · 6d

The problem isn't that Kash Patel is failing at his attempts to be a serious and capable figure. The problem is that the FBI director isn't even trying.

Take his firing of a field agent who wouldn’t humiliate James Comey, for example. www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddo...

As his FBI tenure goes from bad to worse, Kash Patel abandons the pretense of seriousness

The problem isn’t that the FBI director is failing at his attempts to be a serious and capable figure. The problem is that he isn’t even trying.

Steve Benen @stevebenen.com · 6d

So the president sees an imaginary crisis unfolding in Portland, which he wants to resolve by deploying Guard troops from other states, against Oregon's wishes, while circumventing a court order.

The phase “constitutional crisis” is sometimes overused, but... www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddo...

Trump tries, fails to circumvent court ruling on unnecessary Portland troop deployment

I realize the phrase “constitutional crisis” is sometimes used unnecessarily, but once in a while, it’s not altogether hyperbolic.

Steve Benen @stevebenen.com · 8d

Honestly, I pondered that same question for a while. I'm still not sure.

Steve Benen @stevebenen.com · 8d

On the woeful U.S. job market, Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer keeps using that word, “momentum,” but I don’t think it means what she thinks it means. www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddo...

The government shutdown leaves Americans in the dark about the latest job numbers

Without new employment data, Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer tried to point to recent “momentum” in the job market. Reality told a different story.

Steve Benen @stevebenen.com · 8d

Republicans: When Democrats use words like “fascists,” it creates a dangerous climate that leads to political violence.

Trump: Democrats are “evil,” “fascists,” “treasonous,” and the party of “Satan.”

Republicans: ...

Trump pushes a new label for Democrats: ‘The Party Of Hate, Evil, And Satan’

Republicans apparently want Democrats to stop using the kind of incendiary political rhetoric that the president uses all the time.

Steve Benen @stevebenen.com · 9d

White House officials had several days to come up with a reason why Trump promoted a bonkers "medbed" video.

Evidently, they couldn't think of much. www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddo...

White House tries to defend Trump amplifying bizarre ‘medbed’ pseudoscience

Karoline Leavitt had several days to come up with a reason why the president promoted a video about magic beds. She apparently couldn’t think of much.