Democrat Politics

The traditional media is not our friend. 

That’s not a controversial stance, but the notion of the “liberal media” has been a hindrance for progressive power-building. It’s not their job to be our friend, but unlike conservative donors, who never tire of building new friendly media outlets, liberal donors refused to do so because, you know, “liberal media.” 

This year, the progressive movement saw the folly of that belief. And it brings home just how important it is to support real progressive media like Daily Kos. 

So yes, I’ll be asking you to subscribe. And if you already subscribe and have the means, you can now give gift subscriptions!  

Donald Trump nominated former acting attorney general and Trump loyalist Matthew Whitaker to be the United States ambassador to NATO on Wednesday. The ambassador serves as a crucial liaison with our foreign allies, who have criticized Trump’s pro-Russia statements and sentiments during the Russia-Ukraine War.

“Matt is a strong warrior and loyal Patriot, who will ensure the United States’ interests are advanced and defended,” Trump said in a statement. 

Whitaker is a relic from Trump’s first term, where he began as chief of staff to Attorney General Jeff Sessions before a brief and stormy stint replacing Sessions as acting attorney general. He was in turn replaced by William Barr, then managed to hang on as an adviser in the Justice Department.

But it wouldn’t be a Trump pick without a history of dubiousness.

A cartoon by Clay Jones.

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MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” is seeing a ratings drop and facing criticism from multiple sources after the hosts of the show, Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, traveled to Mar-a-Lago to pay homage to incoming president Donald Trump.

According to Nielsen television ratings, the audience for “Morning Joe” dropped 17% in the hour after Brzezinski relayed the details of the couple’s meeting with Trump. The audience decline was even more pronounced—down 38%—among the 25-54 demographic, a key metric for advertisers.

Criticism soon came in from multiple sources. Katie Phang, host of MSNBC’s “The Katie Phang Show,” wrote on X as the disclosure was made, “Normalizing Trump is a bad idea. Period.”

Knives are out for the vice president-elect as JD Vance’s fellow Republican senators trash him for skipping out on confirmation votes for President Joe Biden’s judicial nominees.

Even though Republicans are currently in the Senate minority, the party is trying to block Biden’s nominees by slowing down the confirmation process in order to run out the clock and keep Biden from filling vacancies on the federal bench. 

As of Tuesday, the Senate has confirmed 217 of Biden’s picks, with 44 vacancies, according to CBS News. If Biden fills them all, he’ll have gotten more judges onto the federal bench than Donald Trump did in his first term in office. 

But Vance, along with a handful of other Senate Republicans, have been absent from the chamber, leaving the GOP without a sufficient number of votes to achieve their goal of slow-rolling the process and blocking confirmations.

“If we don’t show up, we lose,” Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina told The Hill. “I don’t care what the reasons were. We have fewer than 15 scheduled legislative days. You have to show up. Period. End of story. There’s nothing more important.”

“This leftist judge would have been voted down and the seat on the important 11th circuit would have been filled by Donald Trump next year had Republicans showed up,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis wrote in a post on X, referring to Monday’s confirmation of Embry J. Kidd. “Now, the leftist judge will have a lifetime appointment and the people of FL, AL and GA will suffer the consequences.”

On Tuesday, even Trump seemingly lashed out at Vance and other Republicans who didn’t show. (Of course, at least two Republican senators were with Trump at a rocket launch for pal Elon Musk’s company.)

“The Democrats are trying to stack the Courts with Radical Left Judges on their way out the door. Republican Senators need to Show Up and Hold the Line — No more Judges confirmed before Inauguration Day!” Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social platform.

If Donald Trump gets his way, his Cabinet will look more like a junk drawer, filled with unqualified crackpots who made names for themselves on television.

Pete Hegseth, Trump’s nominee to lead the Department of Defense; Sean Duffy, Trump’s pick for the Department of Transportation; Mehmet Oz, Trump’s choice to run the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services; and Linda McMahon, who Trump selected to lead the Department of Education that he wants to cut, all made names for themselves in the entertainment world.

Donald Trump has nominated former WWE CEO Linda McMahon, who used to put on events like “Hell in a Cell” and “Wrestlemania,” to lead the Department of Education.

In a press release Tuesday night, Trump said McMahon would lead efforts to “send Education BACK TO THE STATES,” a longtime goal of Republicans who have sought to prevent the department from achieving national education goals and priorities.

McMahon also previously served as the head of the Small Business Administration during Trump’s first term. As part of Trump’s economic team, McMahon was part of an administration that saw the worst net job loss since the data has been tracked. Small-business growth under McMahon also pales in comparison to the record under Joe Biden’s current administration, which recently hit a record of 20 million small-business applications.

McMahon follows in the tradition of Betsy DeVos, who served as education secretary in Trump’s first administration: They’re both billionaire Republican donors and not figures with serious education backgrounds. McMahon did, however, resign from a state education position after it was revealed that she falsely claimed to have a degree in education.

North Carolina Republicans advanced extensive legislation Tuesday that would weaken the powers of the incoming governor, attorney general and schools superintendent — all Democrats who were elected two weeks ago — and shift election board appointments to the GOP state auditor.

The final 131-page measure, which also includes setting aside additional funds for Hurricane Helene relief, became public roughly an hour before the GOP-controlled House met to debate it during a lame-duck General Assembly session this week. The House voted largely along party lines Tuesday night for the measure, which the Republican-controlled Senate was expected to take up on Wednesday.

With Republicans likely to lose their veto-proof majority in the next two-year session following electoral losses in the House, this week could be the last best chance for them to enact legislation containing sharp partisan changes. Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper leaves office at year’s end and will be succeeded by Democrat Josh Stein.

Dr. Mehmet Oz, President-elect Donald Trump’s latest shocking addition to his junk drawer of a Cabinet, has a documented history of choosing Big Pharma dollars over the health of Americans. 

Trump has nominated Oz to be administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. But the former daytime talk show host-turned-politician raised eyebrows in 2022 when he released his personal financial disclosure form ahead of the U.S. Senate race in Pennsylvania.

In the form, Oz—known for peddling controversial health products on his show—reported a relationship with Usana Health Sciences, a Utah-based supplement company with a track record of contamination lawsuits and pyramid-scheme accusations. 

According to The Associated Press, the former surgeon’s health-focused TV show accepted “at least $50 million” in advertising dollars from Usana to promote the company as a “trusted partner and sponsor.”

Post-election commentary has largely devolved into a circular firing squad aimed at various Democratic subgroups while ignoring the elephant in the room. I think the main question we should be asking is not “What did we do wrong?” so much as “How did something this depraved happen?” I found myself agreeing a lot with this New Republic article, which makes the case for the overwhelming dominance of right-wing media and how it sets the agenda for the national conversation.

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