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1/ In the final year of his presidency, Joe Biden’s top aides — and his wife, Jill —hid him from the media and the public in ways that we are only now beginning to fully grasp. 2/ On Tuesday, we got another look at how pervasive the effort to keep Biden from speaking extemporaneously really was — and how it has continued even after his time in the White House.

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1/ Here’s the blunt reality: No one cares about the intricacies of Donald Trump’s deportation policies or his decision to call up the California National Guard when cars are being set on fire, freeways are being blocked and rocks are being thrown at cops. 2/ For all the talk among liberals about how the calling up of the National Guard is the first step in Trump’s authoritarian plan, there’s a zero percent chance that anyone who isn’t a liberal cares about that right now.

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1/ Don't look now but the DNC is imploding.

Witness this story from Politico over the weekend about Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin and DNC Vice Chair David Hogg: 2/ What we are witnessing is nothing short of an implosion at the biggest and most important organization within the Democratic party. And we are not even 6 months into the tenures of Martin and Hogg.

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1/ I like John Fetterman.

Not because of his politics. But because he is different -- and not afraid of his party's base.

But, of late, I have started to think the Senate might not be the right place for him. 2/ While I do think there are some bad-faith actors on the left who simply don’t like his lack of willingness to toe the party line, I am now increasingly convinced that Fetterman simply doesn’t like being in the Senate — and that feeling is leading to him not doing the basics of the job.

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1/ My friend @chucktodd said that Donald Trump's West Point speech over the weekend was “the most disrespectful speech an American president has ever given in front of military cadets.”

I decided to go through it line by line.

Here's what I found: 2/ The speech was VERY political. Lots of the lines in it were lifted directly from Trump's campaign stump speech.

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1/ The David Hogg experiment appears to be almost over at the Democratic National Committee. And it has been — and this is a technical term — an utter debacle.

Let's go through it. 2/ On Monday, the Democratic National Committee’s credential committees — committees within committees! — approved a resolution challenging the February 1 election of Hogg as DNC Vice Chairman

1/ Donald Trump said Thursday that the two worst presidents ever were Joe Biden and Jimmy Carter.

I wanted to figure out if presidential historians agree.

Here's what I found out: 2/ There are a few main surveys of presidential historians we can look to here. One is conducted by Siena College. Another is done by C-SPAN. And a third is by two political science professors who collected responses from more than 150 political pros.

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1/ We are witnessing an act of remarkable political incompetence by Donald Trump on tariffs.

It is hard for me to remember a bigger, dumber or more self-inflicted wound than this one.

Let me explain: 2/ Let’s start with how Trump (and his allies) are trying to polish this political turd.

Which, basically, can be summed up this way: We knew this was going to happen! It’s all going to be just fine! Cool out, man!

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1/ Donald Trump has been president for 8 days.

In that time, the following “outrages” have happened:

* He wants to renamed the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America”

* He wants to buy Greenland (or possibly take it over by force)

* He wants a better deal on the Panama Canal (or possibly take it over by force)

* He put his billionaire supporters (Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg) in the front row at his inauguration

* Elon Musk made a hand/arm gesture that evoked the “Heil Hitler” salute

* Trump reacted poorly when a bishop at an inauguration event asked him to “have mercy” on LGBTQ people and immigrants. 2/ I didn’t write much — if anything — about any of these outrages.

That was on purpose.

Here’s some real talk: In the decade since Trump came down the golden escalator, a cottage industry has developed: Outrage porn.

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1/ I screwed up.

Back in May 2020, I wrote how Anthony Fauci had "crushed" Donald Trump's lab-leak theory for how Covid-19 originated

The CIA said over the weekend that they now believed the virus leaked from a lab.

So....a few thoughts: 2/ Here's a CIA spokesperson:

"CIA assesses with low confidence that a research-related origin of the COVID-19 pandemic is more likely than a natural origin based on the available body of reporting"

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1/ The Joe vs Kamala feud is now leaking more into the open.

This is not surprising -- it was always a political marriage of convenience -- but it is revealing about the vastly different goals Biden and Harris have now.

A few thoughts: 2/ Start here, with some great @WSJ reporting:

"Vice President Kamala Harris has told close allies and family members she is disappointed in President Biden’s recent contention that he would have won the 2024 election."

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1/ Republicans are currently in the midst of a(nother) circular firing squad moment as they try to fund the government.

How they got here -- and who has the power at the moment -- is deeply revealing about the party heading into the Trump presidency.

A few thoughts: 2/ Speaker Mike Johnson spent much of the past 96 hours assuring his colleagues that really, really soon — like any minute now — they would get to see the 1,500+ page bill that would keep the government open until March.

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1/ I watched the NCAA men's soccer championship match on Monday night.

It was an amazing game -- won by Vermont in OT. It was also evidence of the crisis in which college soccer finds itself.

Here's @GUHoyasMSoccer head coach Brian Wiese: “It truly is the most difficult time to be a high-end American soccer player to find a home that I can think of."

Let's break it down: 2/ Of the 22 starters on the field in Cary, North Carolina in the national championship game Monday night, 16 of them were internationals. That’s almost 75%!

Here's the full breakdown:

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1/ On Monday, Donald Trump gave his first press conference since winning the November election.

I went through it line by line. You can check out all 37 must-see lines at the link in my bio!

A few favs: 2/ “It's a very flat surface, a very flat land. That's why it's great farming land. It's the -- it's the bread basket for the world actually, but it's very flat and there's nothing to stop a bullet but a body.” -- Trump on Ukraine

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1/ The election ended 3 weeks ago. Enough time has passed.

We -- or I -- can now safely pronounce that the Tim Walz VP pick was a dud.

Let me explain: 2/ Before I get into it, let me say two things.

One: Tim Walz did not lose Harris the race (or even close to it)

Two: Josh Shapiro would not have made Harris win -- or even win Pennsylvania.

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1/ I've been posting charts/graphs/maps that I think tell the story of the election (and where we are headed) over the last week.

Decided to put them all in a single place.

You can see all 15 for FREE! Link in my bio!

Let's go through them: 2/ Donald Trump won 33% of non-white voters

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1/ I asked a prominent D strategist to help me diagnose what went so wrong for Kamala Harris and what the party needs now.

He wrote an incredible autopsy.

You can read it for FREE. Link in my bio.

A few key thoughts from it: 2/ It all began on March 14, 2020 -- when Biden, in a debate with Bernie Sanders -- pledged he would pick a woman to be his VP.

As the strategist wrote: "With this transactional appeal to the progressive left, Biden traded his responsibility to choose the most qualified potential heir for, instead, a smoother path to the nomination that was likely his before the promise was even made."

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1/ Kamala Harris stepped in 💩 today.

In an interview with @TheView, she was asked if she would have done ANYTHING different than Joe Biden.

She said: "There is not a thing that comes to mind"

WHOOPS. 2/ Remember that Biden's approval rating has been in the high 30s or low 40s for 18 months straight.

And that a majority of the public does not approve of how he has handled issues like immigration or the economy.

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1/ The more I look at the electoral map, the more I am convinced that the election comes down to MI, PA and WI.

If Harris wins all three, she is president -- no matter what happens in AZ, GA, NV or NC.

But... 2/ If she loses any ONE of those Blue Wall states, her path gets much harder.

Like, if she loses WI, she would then need GA, NC or AZ to win.

If she loses PA she would need two of GA, NC and AZ or one of them + NV

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1/ I didn't really *get* the Tim Walz thing before last night.

I knew of him when he was a Congressman. And when he got elected governor.

But the political world never touted him as a rising star. Not "someone to watch."

So, I underestimated him... 2/ When Kamala Harris picked Walz, I thought it was a mistake.

Josh Shapiro made much more sense in terms of raw political considerations.

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1/ I wanted to distill my thoughts on Kamala Harris’ no-media strategy into a single piece.

The essence: Democrats are engaged in a massive game of whataboutism on the issue. Harris should talk to the media because it’s the right thing to do for democracy.

Let me explain. 2/ The first response from any Democrat when you mention the fact that Harris has done ZERO media interviews and held ZERO press conferences as the presidential nominee is something like:Trump is way worse!

They note, rightly, that Trump has worked to undermine the press. That he mostly gives interviews to friendly outlets. And that he lies all the time.