David A. Graham
He won the Toner Prize for Excellence in National Political Reporting in 2021 for his coverage of the 2020 presidential election. Before joining The Atlantic in 2011, he reported for Newsweek, the Daily Beast, The Wall Street Journal, and The National. At The Atlantic, he covers politics and national affairs, and he previously edited the politics section.
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How to Rename a Place
A little-known federal body gives official approval to what appears on maps. Now it is caught in the middle of the country’s upheaval over racism and language.
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Saul Loeb / Reuters Biden Seizes the Center
In his first State of the Union address, the president sought to rescue his dismal approval ratings by avoiding stark partisanship.
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Getty ; The Atlantic Putin’s Useful Idiots
Too many Republicans who know better are serving as mouthpieces for the Kremlin.
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Getty; The Atlantic What’s Wrong With All the Ships?
Do recent boat disasters actually point to a global shipping industry in distress?
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Mike Coppola / Getty How CNN Betrayed Its Audience
Jeff Zucker’s alleged ethics breach torched the network’s reputation.
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Nicole Bengiveno / The New York Times / … The Stumbling Block to One of the Most Promising Police Reforms
The best mental-health responders in the world can help only if emergency dispatchers know when to deploy them.
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Jessica Rinaldi / The Boston Globe / Getty The Lure of the Fan-Service Scandal
These sagas are powerful tools for motivating a base or keeping it frothed up, but they don’t usually work well as tools of persuasion.
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Samuel Corum / Getty A Raid by Nancy Pelosi’s Gazpacho Police
A dish best served cold
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Yuri Gripas / Bloomberg / Getty; The Atlantic The Incredible Vanishing Trump Presidency
The Presidential Records Act was not designed for a president as lawless and shameless as Trump.
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Kevin Dietsch / Chris Carlson-Pool / Saul Loeb … The End of the Republicans’ Big Tent
The party has no tolerance for dissent within its ranks.
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Getty; The Atlantic Smart Men Acting Stupid
In attempting to succeed in the Trump-era Republican Party, some politicians are masquerading as what they imagine voters want, with results that ring almost comically false.
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Illustration by Paul Spella / The Atlantic* Coup Nation
Americans across the country participated in an effort to subvert democracy.
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The Atlantic Does Being a Victim of Crime Shift a Politician’s Views?
Representative Mary Gay Scanlon speaks about having her car stolen from her at gunpoint.
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Stefani Reynolds / The New York Times / … The Bad Deal Democrats Should Take
Electoral-count reform is a narrow fix, insufficient for the many problems in the voting system—but it’s better than nothing at all.
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Getty; The Atlantic The Right Has Its Own American Crisis
Trump-friendly voters are expressing concern about a crisis that simply doesn’t exist.
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Getty; Adam Maida / The Atlantic The Paperwork Coup
A much more dangerous insurrection was under way in the inboxes of Trump’s inner circle in the weeks before January 6.
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Yuri Gripas / Bloomberg / Getty What Mark Meadows Is Learning the Hard Way
Trump is still king.
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Mike Blake / Reuters Chris Cuomo Must Go
New revelations show the CNN anchor betrayed his obligation to his viewers.
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Sean Krajacic / Getty The Rittenhouse Trial Could Never Have Been What Americans Wanted
Even a guilty verdict would not have answered the questions the case had come to symbolize.
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Drew Angerer / Getty Six Theories of Joe Biden’s Crumbling Popularity
The president’s approval ratings keep falling. The question is why.
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Getty; The Atlantic The Right’s Total Loss of Proportion
Support an attack on Congress? No problem. Vote for Biden’s infrastructure bill? You’ve betrayed your country.
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