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@GregTSargent
Sep 5, 2024 • 8 tweets • 6 min read • Read on X
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It's a big deal that veteran journalist Mike Barnicle has now called out his media colleagues for failing to adequately cover Trump's visibly worsening mental state. It should spur a real discussion about how to do this, before it's too late. 1/

New piece
newrepublic.com/article/185622…
“We have a damaged, delusional, old man who might get reelected to the presidency," Mike Barnicle said on @Morning_Joe. He said the media doesn't really cover Trump's daily insanity as a window into his mental fitness for the presidency. This is right. 2/

newrepublic.com/article/185622…

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Some in the media will reject this, claiming they do cover Trump's crazier claims. But this misses the point. His mental unfitness for the presidency is *itself* the big story. It merits sustained scrutiny as a topic with its own intrinsic importance. 3/

newrepublic.com/article/185622…

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You can find some examples of reporting on Trump's mental state. But it's not remotely adequate. A lot of stuff gets overlooked entirely. Trump's deranged claims about gender at Moms for Liberty event were not adequately covered, as @mtomasky noted. 4/

newrepublic.com/article/185622…

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As @jbouie notes, the whole premise of Biden age coverage was that his mental capacity for the job is a matter of national importance. Why not apply this to Trump's addled incoherence, lack of curiosity, serial lying, and sadistic verbal abuses? 5/

newrepublic.com/article/185622…

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To imagine what real coverage of Trump's mental unfitness might look like, I took 10 real Biden age headlines and rewrote them around Trump's unfitness for the presidency.

Read them below; the effect is striking. Why don't we see saturation like this? 6/

newrepublic.com/article/185622…

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Those are real headlines about Biden's age at top news orgs, reimagined as heds about Trump's mental unfitness for the job. We should treat those Trump traits and the politics around them as *themselves* being the news.

Link to full argument below. END

newrepublic.com/article/185622…
Related, important point from @JRubinBlogger: Inadequate scrutiny of Trump's mental unfitness ends up insulating Republicans more broadly from hard questions about their continued enthusiastic support for him. Also citing @JeffreyGoldberg

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/…

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More from @GregTSargent

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May 1
NEWS --> Dem can redraw anywhere from 10-22 additional House seats for the party in time for the 2028 elections if they aggressively redistrict in 7 key states, a new Fair Fight Action report finds.

This would offset GOP post-SCOTUS advantage.

New piece:
newrepublic.com/article/209830…
Dems can redraw 10 additional House seats for 2028 just in New York, Colorado, Oregon and Maryland, the new Fair Fight Action analysis finds. That's if Dems don't flip *any* state legislatures this cycle.

newrepublic.com/article/209830…Image
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If Dems can flip a few state legislative chambers in places like Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Minnesota this cycle, a path opens to redrawing up to 22 additional House seats in time for 2028, the analysis finds.

If Dems have a good midterm that's doable.

newrepublic.com/article/209830…Image
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Read 6 tweets
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Apr 20
News --> Paramount, Meta, and X won't say what happened to their huge donations to Trump's presidential library after Sen Elizabeth Warren raised questions about its fund getting dissolved. Dems say tens of millions remain unaccounted for.

Details here:
newrepublic.com/article/209254…
First, let's note that the Trump library saga combines the worse of his imperial presidency all in one: his use of lawsuits to extort private entities for tribute; his garishly awful decorative and architectural taste; and his Nero-scale megalomania.

newrepublic.com/article/209254…Image
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After the companies settled with Trump in his shakedown lawsuits, the money was pledged to his presidential library. But the fund was then dissolved. Senate Dems asked the companies where the money went. They have now replied. I obtained their answers:

newrepublic.com/article/209254…Image
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Read 5 tweets
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Apr 7
If Trump bombs Iran power plants, the humanitarian crisis will be horrific. Experts predict water shortages, closed hospitals, many deaths.

“We’ve never had a US president so proudly promise to commit war crimes," Sen Chris Murphy says. 1/

(new piece)
newrepublic.com/article/208709…
This is how to do it. Sen Chris Murphy tells me:

"Everybody in that chain of command has to think hard about whether they want to be part of the execution of that order."

He predicts bombing Iran power plants/bridges will kill thousands at outset. 2/

newrepublic.com/article/208709…Image
Trump's threat to bomb "every" power plant in Iran is the key. That leaves no doubt he's threatening war crimes. The threat to destroy "a whole civilization" only hammers it home.

The key is what happens in the aftermath of bombing all those plants. 3/

newrepublic.com/article/208709…Image
Read 8 tweets
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Mar 30
Pete Hegseth just held a prayer service in which he appealed for God's help in killing our "enemies" with maximal violence and brutality. Hegseth's bloodlust and sadism are drawing sustenance from his brand of far-right Christianity. 1/

(new piece)
newrepublic.com/article/208322…
In his prayer, Hegseth asked for divine assistance in unleashing "overwhelming violence of action against those who deserve no mercy."

By now it's become unmistakable that Hegseth is practically oozing with bloodlust. There are many examples of this. 2/

newrepublic.com/article/208322…Image
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Hegseth appears to be a devotee of Christian Reconstructionism. As one religious scholar notes, this posits that "all authority belongs to God," which renders the state’s authority wholly subordinate to a "higher category of Biblical law." 3/

newrepublic.com/article/208322…Image
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Read 7 tweets
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Feb 4
Remarkable: Trump's planned migrant prison camps are hitting deep resistance in red areas. In Virginia's partly rural Hanover (+26 Trump) opposition is intense. GOP leaders in other states are opposed.

Voters are rejecting mass deportations. 1/

(link)
newrepublic.com/article/206094…
These vast prison camps would allow for the detention of 80,000 more migrants, doubling Trump/Miller's capacity for deportations. Yet resistance is breaking out in red Virginia, reddish parts of New Jersey, Oklahoma City, Kansas City, Utah, and more. 2/

newrepublic.com/article/206094…Image
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This passed unnoticed: New Pew poll finds 64% oppose mass detention of migrants while cases are decided.

That directly repudiates MAGA. Trumpism treats release of migrants awaiting hearings as a mortal blow to the nation. Broader public does not. 3/

newrepublic.com/article/206094…Image
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Read 5 tweets
. Profile picture
Dec 15, 2025
Stephen Miller is employing state terror in service of the open goal of shifting the ethnic mix of the country. In numerous ways he's doing this at the expense of public safety.

We spent weeks reporting on Miller's real aims. The result is this piece:
newrepublic.com/article/204191…
Highlights from our Miller piece:

First, his grandmother has written an unpublished history of some of his ancestors' immigration to the US. We are publishing it online for the first time. They were attacked in terms similar to those he uses today.

newrepublic.com/article/204191…Image
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Some news on Trump's doling out of most refugee slots to white South Africans: Two former State Department officials tell us basic protocols designed to determine whether this group actually merits protection have simply been scrapped. It's just whim.

newrepublic.com/article/204191…Image
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Read 9 tweets

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