Todd Zwillich
@toddzwillich
Journalism in Washington, often heard hosting 1A on NPR. Former host of The Takeaway from WNYC and "Breaking the Vote" @ Vice News.
.@brianbeutler with a reminder to journalists attending Saturday’s dinner with Pres Trump: History is being written today. We’re all players, and history is watching. “Some of your faces will be filmed and photographed; some of those images will circulate for centuries.”
A White House official talking about infighting in the Texas GOP Senate primary. It’s the qualifier that really contains worlds.
Trump has repeatedly said he reserves the right to invoke the Insurrection Act and deploy the US military in American cites. Here. his Deputy Atty General refers to ICE-involved violence in Minneapolis as “an insurrection”. On the right, Trump’s NYT interview
White House reporters, producers, pundits and viewers should be ferocious over this moral emergency:
“Will you pardon the convicted child sex trafficker” has one correct answer, and everyone with intact moral intuitions knows what that is. When Trump failed to say “No, of course not” it should have been a show stopper, not another instance of “Trump being Trump”. WH reporters should be ferocious.
Turns out Hegseth forced Adm Holsey out of his command because, at least in part, of friction over the so-called “drug boat” strike campaign.
Hegseth’s judgment & behavior so worried senators that he promised he would stop drinking if confirmed as SecDef. I haven’t heard any reporter ask, “Mr Secretary, since your confirmation, have you had a drink?” Not a troll, it’s the standard Hegseth publicly set for himself.
DOJ says DoD civilian employee Gokhan Gun, 51, of Falls Church, Va, now faces up to 5 years after pleading guilty to unlawful removal and retention of *5* classified docs in his home. AG Pam Bondi earlier today: “The days of committing crimes without consequence have ended.”
AG Pam Bondi announcing “severe” charges against 3 defendants for vandalizing Tesla dealerships, cars or charging stations: “The days of committing crimes without consequence have ended.” (1,600 Jan 6 defendants pardoned, Eric Adams, Justin Sun, etc etc etc)
This is the Battle of Helms Deep. In Rohan. And those aren’t Orcs, they’re Uruk-hai. I don’t often attack judges and undermine the rule of law, but when I do I GET LOTR RIGHT
Forget attendance at the Gridiron, which doesn’t matter and should go away. This shot/chaser from Politico says much much more about its choices and commitments than it does about the rituals of legacy Beltway media.
One person texted to suggested they would respond to Musk’s ‘5 things you did last week’ email this way
I found this @brianbeutler.bsky.social piece on RFK, steroids, and living comfortably in one’s body with hormones quite enlightening. open.substack.com/pub/brianbeu...
Musk’s DOGE people have access to systems and data at the Small Business Administration, including HR and payments
Worth pointing out a framing choice in this Politico process piece. Story says RFK Jr “has for years contradicted health authorities by advocating against vaccination” It’s not “authority” RFK contradicts. It’s all the known data, decades of science. The actual facts. Big difference
Mark Zuckerberg loved Star Wars as a kid. Of course all kids identify with Luke and the gang. But it’s interesting to imagine how adult Mark thinks he would fit into this tale of commerce, mercantilism, authoritarianism, and resistance.
Why just yesterday on 1A / NPR we covered the glaring invitations for conflict of interest and corruption as Trump again melds the presidency and his personal interests the1a.org/segments/if-...
As Democrats struggle with and debate their messaging and future against a populist/MAGA GOP, it’s notable that the chairman of the Judiciary Committee pegs Gaetz’s unfitness for AG to Gaetz’s failure to be forthcoming about his background.
A woman testified to multiple sexual encounters with Gaetz when she was 17. Trump: “He was going very well…Matt has a wonderful future.”
In 2015 a group of physicians and professors implored Columbia U. to sever ties with Mehmet Oz, citing “a disdain for science and evidence-based medicine” and “egregious lack of integrity… in the interest of personal financial gain.”