Politics & Policy
The Future of the American Idea
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Projects
KING
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Horace Cort / AP / Mike Cassese / ... King's Death Gave Birth to Hip-Hop
The assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. led directly to hip-hop, an era of black American culture, politics, and art that is often contrasted with his legacy.
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Projects
The Trump Presidency: A Damage Report
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Mike McQuade How Trump Is Ending the American Era
For all the visible damage the president has done to the nation’s global standing, things are much worse below the surface.
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Ilana Panich-Linsman Hurricane Harvey Is Houston’s Unending Nightmare
A year after flood waters devastated the nation’s fourth-largest city, Houston remains trapped in an existential moment, struggling to find the funds to rebuild and reengineer and keep another such catastrophe at bay.
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Brian Snyder / Reuters Arizona Senator John McCain Dies at 81
The war hero and elder statesman of the Republican Party had fought a year-long battle with brain cancer.
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Joshua Roberts / Reuters Even Scott Walker Says He’s ‘at Risk’ in Wisconsin
Polling shows a tight race for governor, and a series of special elections has hinted at Trump fatigue in big swings for Democrats.
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Win McNamee / Reuters John McCain and the Lost Art of Decency
In decades of covering politics, I’ve encountered no one else with McCain’s unflinching combination of bracing candor, impossibly high standards, and rueful self-recrimination.
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Carlo Allegri / Reuters The Atlantic Politics & Policy Daily: The Tip of the Weisselberg
Allen Weisselberg, the longtime CFO of the Trump Organization, was reportedly granted immunity by federal prosecutors in exchange for providing information about Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer.
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New York Prosecutors May Pose a Bigger Threat to Trump Than Mueller
The offer of immunity to the Trump Organization’s chief financial officer is reminiscent of moves law enforcement used as they were taking down the Mafia.
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John Amis / AP The Democratic Effort to Keep Jeff Sessions in Office
Most in the party opposed his confirmation and view him as “a disaster” on policy. But to protect the Mueller investigation, they’re now trying to shield him from President Trump.
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Why Social Media Shouldn’t Censor Hate Speech
The former president of the ACLU believes censorship—including on Facebook and other platforms—is ineffective.
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Corbis via Getty LBJ’s Wild Ex-President Hair (And the Story Behind It)
Toward the end of his life, the 36th president of the United States grew his hair long—much like the youths who protested his strategy in Vietnam. But why?
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Eric Gay / AP 'The Most Simple Constitutional Arguments Become Complicated Once Guns Are Involved'
A federal judge heard arguments Tuesday in a case about whether keeping 3-D-printed guns from getting into the wrong hands limits First Amendment freedoms.
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Alexandria Fuller The Bias in Fresno’s Justice System
An investigation of policing in Fresno shows a lasting legacy of discrimination, and its consequences.
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Alexandre Meneghini / Reuters The Farm Bill and the ‘Assault’ on Poor Families
Stringent new work requirements for food-stamp recipients could doom passage of a new farm bill.
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Drew Angerer / Getty Paul Manafort and Trump’s Pardon Pattern
As he has with Manafort, President Trump has decried the government’s “unfair” treatment of all three men he has pardoned to date. But will the pattern hold with his former campaign manager?
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Pablo Martinez Monsivais / AP How a Lawsuit Could Check Trump's Power Over Security Clearances
Can the president restrict a person’s access to classified material for any reason he wants? It may take a claim from former CIA Director John Brennan to find out.
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Andrew Harnik / AP The Atlantic Politics & Policy Daily: Session and Off Again
Attorney General Jeff Sessions responded to attacks from President Trump in a statement, saying the Justice Department “will not be improperly influenced by political considerations.”
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Carlos Barria / Reuters The American Obsession With Donald Trump’s Mood
As the president endures a brutal news cycle, gauging his state of mind has become a fixation of Washington.
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Jim Urquhart / Reuters Trump’s White-Nationalist Pipeline
The most enduring scandal in and around the White House might not be corruption, but rather the administration’s constant embrace of bigotry from white-supremacist and far-right groups.
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Radio Atlantic: Trump’s Worst Day
What does the guilt of Paul Manafort and Michael Cohen mean for President Trump?
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Spencer Platt / Getty Why So Many Democratic Candidates Are Dissing Corporate PACs
Their pledge not to accept money from business entities is mostly symbolic. But voters can expect to hear it a lot more often in elections to come.
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Yana Paskova / Getty Why Trump Can't Understand the Cases Against Manafort and Cohen
The president is used to operating in a business milieu where white-collar crime is common and seldom prosecuted aggressively.
