As former Trump aide Kellyanne Conway once suggested, if you don’t like the facts, just create alternative facts.
That’s exactly what Republicans and their pollsters are doing in several of this cycle’s most hotly contested races.
Take Georgia, for instance—until about Oct. 21 or 22, Democratic incumbent Sen.
The Republican attack on books written by LGBTQ authors may have met its match in an ally who spoke out at a Tennessee library board meeting last Wednesday. Up against claims that books exploring gender were “age-inappropriate” and attacks from community members who used the controversy to spread homophobic hate, Jessee Graham, a resident of Columbia, showed the Maury County Library Board she would not sit idly and let her community be torn apart.
El Paso Times this past summer reported a rising number of migrant deaths in the region, many losing their lives due to heat exposure and drowning in dangerous canals. That report said that at least 37 migrants had died in the region since October 2021, approaching the death toll of 39 during the previous fiscal year. Advocates in that report warned of “a major human rights crisis at the border.”
They have been horrifically, tragically correct.
My biennial election season freakout has begun! If scientists could find a way to harness my nervous energy in the days leading up to elections, they’d be able to power a small town for a year—or Rudy Giuliani’s liver for about 20 minutes. (Allegedly!)
But this year, along with my usual hefty slice of wry dread, I’m offering up something a little different: a message of hope.
Instead of obsessively refreshing 538.
“Look at the sewage that is online that they amplify on these networks,” the California Democrat warned.
Ohio Republicans are fighting what they see as a push for such access in liberal enclaves such as San Francisco and New York City.
The bipartisan bill would make it easier for evacuated Afghans to become legal permanent residents.
This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here.There’s been some—mostly silly—hysteria over Elon Musk finally taking ownership of Twitter. But there are reasons to be concerned, even if you’re not on the platform.First, here are three new stories from The Atlantic.
Emily Oster: Let’s declare a pandemic amnesty.
This is an edition of Up for Debate, a newsletter by Conor Friedersdorf. On Wednesdays, he rounds up timely conversations and solicits reader responses to one thought-provoking question. Later, he publishes some thoughtful replies. Sign up for the newsletter here.
At the height of the coronavirus pandemic, as lines of ambulances roared down the streets and freezer vans packed into parking lots, the pediatric emergency department at Our Lady of the Lake Children’s Hospital, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, was quiet.It was an eerie juxtaposition, says Chris Woodward, a pediatric-emergency-medicine specialist at the hospital, given what was happening just a few doors down.
If the measure passes, language will be added to the state’s constitution guaranteeing the right to abortion as well as contraception and other reproductive health services.
From 2017 to 2021, a string of businessmen with long, lucrative careers entered government service and left with their reputations tarnished. Rex Tillerson was a world-bestriding CEO who found himself hated by both his new boss and his new employees. Steven Mnuchin, a successful though largely anonymous moneyman, developed an image as a sloppy supervillain.
Democratic Congressmember Ro Khanna says Saudi Arabia should face consequences for its decision to cut oil output by 2 million barrels a day as part of the OPEC+ cartel, raising gas prices in the United States just before the midterm elections where cost-of-living issues are expected to be a major factor. He also discusses the Saudi-led war in Yemen, describing it as “one of the largest humanitarian crises in the world” that must be brought to an end.
Why did members of the House Progressive Caucus retract a letter to President Biden that called for diplomatic engagement with Russia to end the war in Ukraine? We speak with Congressmember Ro Khanna of California, one of the signatories, who says he continues to stand by the letter despite the decision to withdraw it.
Police in California have arrested a 42-year-old man for breaking into House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s home and assaulting her 82-year-old husband with a hammer. Paul Pelosi suffered a skull fracture and other injuries, but is expected to make a full recovery. We speak to Democratic Congressmember Ro Khanna of California as President Biden links the attack on the Pelosis to election conspiracy theories spread by Republicans.
Leftist presidential candidate Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has won Brazil’s runoff election, ousting far-right President Jair Bolsonaro after just one term. Lula won with 50.9% of the vote, though Bolsonaro has yet to concede. Other world leaders, including U.S. President Joe Biden, were quick to congratulate Lula on his victory in an effort to forestall efforts by Bolsonaro and his allies to deny the results.
The agency says it’s concerned the practice could endanger patients’ health.
The departure of Michelle McMurry-Heath comes just as the Biden administration is poised to begin implementing key drug pricing provisions and the balance of power could shift in Congress.
The November measure comes as health care advocates at the state level grapple with how to help residents with the rising costs of health care now that it appears Congress will be unable to pass any significant reforms to address the issue.
The head of the federal public health agency is isolating at home with mild symptoms.
If the plan fails, the agency risks repeating the mistakes it made during the pandemic.
Housing investment, though, plunged at a 26 percent annual pace, hammered by surging mortgage rates.
According to an NBC News poll released Sunday, 70 percent of registered voters expressed interest in the upcoming election as a “9” or “10” on a 10-point scale.
The budget gap shrank by half in fiscal 2022 as spending on pandemic programs expired and tax revenues surged.
The U.K. political drama will have ripple effects in the U.S.
We speak with Florida voting rights activist Desmond Meade about how Republicans like Governor Ron DeSantis are attempting to scare formerly incarcerated people with felony convictions from voting. DeSantis launched an election police force to arrest people on trumped-up voter fraud charges.
With Republicans set to make major gains in the November midterms, we speak with reporter Ari Berman, who says Republican control of the Legislature in Wisconsin is a preview of the damage the party could do if empowered in Washington. Berman’s latest piece for Mother Jones is titled “How Wisconsin Became the GOP’s Laboratory for Dismantling Democracy.
Former President Barack Obama is in Georgia Friday to campaign for Democrats in the closely watched Senate and gubernatorial races. This comes as Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer was caught on a hot mic Thursday saying the race between Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock and Trump-backed anti-abortion Republican nominee Herschel Walker is “going downhill,” and recent polls show Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams is trailing Republican Governor Brian Kemp.
Public health experts in the United States are warning of a possible “tripledemic” of respiratory illness this winter: an increase in COVID cases, an early flu season and a surge in cases of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). Hospitals in some parts of the U.S. are already seeing a surge in cases of RSV, which usually causes mild, cold-like symptoms but can be very serious for infants.
He also tore a photo of Martin Luther King Jr. as well as images of other American icons as he claimed Democrats are dividing the nation.