On today’s “To the Contrary” podcast, the New Yorker’s Susan Glasser and I examine the unprecedented scale and brazenness of corruption in Donald Trump's second term. From billion-dollar business deals and crypto coin pay-to-play schemes, to dismantling oversight institutions, we discuss how the machinery of government is being turned into a personal profit engine. With watchdogs removed, norms shattered, and accountability elusive, who’s left to stop it?
You can watch or listen right here or on YouTube / Listen (and subscribe) on Apple/ Spotify / iHeart / RSS Feed.
Happy Tuesday.
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Pulitzer to Jeff Bezos: Fuq U
Via the Daily Beast: “Pulitzers Stick it to Bezos By Awarding Cartoonist Who Lampooned Him”
Ann Telnaes won the award, considered the highest honor in journalism, four months after she revealed that a cartoon showing Bezos and other tech billionaires genuflecting to Donald Trump was killed by the newspaper’s then-opinions editor David Shipley.
The Pulitzer board commended Telnaes for “delivering piercing commentary on powerful people and institutions with deftness, creativity – and a fearlessness that led to her departure from the news organization after 17 years.”
BTW: Here’s the cartoon that the Wapo spiked:
Exit take: Aged pretty well, didn’t it?
Nota Bene
“Pence rebuffs Trump on tariffs, Russia and January 6 pardons in CNN interview”
In an interview with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, Pence rebuffed Trump’s recent comments that children in the United States will have to make do with fewer toys.
Trump’s first-term vice president also said he sees some of Trump’s actions as sharp breaks from what he said were the successes of their administration. That includes “wavering support for Ukraine” in its war with Russia and the “marginalizing the right to life” that Pence said followed Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s selection as health and human services secretary.
Now watching Trump’s return to power from the sidelines, Pence said he plans to make a public case on those issues — in part so that Trump might hear arguments those in his White House aren’t making.
“Whatever the future holds for me, I’m going to try and be a consistent voice for those conservative values that I think are not only the right policy for the Republican Party, but I think they’re the best way forward for a boundless future for the American people,” Pence said.
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The most chilling thing you’ll see today:
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ICYMI:
Some highlights of my conversation with Susan Glasser
Unprecedented corruption.
How do we sort through all the distractions of the Trump Era?
Tuesday dog
My buddy Eli.
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