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Your source for all things Heather Cox Richardson. Managed by Team HCR.

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HCR HQ @hcrhq.bsky.social · 15h
October 3, 2026 On Saturday, October 3, the Power to the People festival, organized by Rock & Roll Hall of Fame guitarist Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave, took over the stage at the Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, Maryland….
heathercoxrichardson.substack.com
October 3, 2026
On Saturday, October 3, the Power to the People festival, organized by Rock & Roll Hall of Fame guitarist Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave, took over the stage at the Merriweathe...
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HCR HQ @hcrhq.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
October 2, 2026 Trump held a campaign rally tonight in Mobile, Alabama, the city where, as Shawn McCreesh of the New York Times recalled, his MAGA rallies really took off in August 2015, when more than 30,000 people showed up to hear the television personality turned presidential candidate….
heathercoxrichardson.substack.com
October 2, 2026
Trump held a campaign rally tonight in Mobile, Alabama, the city where, as Shawn McCreesh of the New York Times recalled, his MAGA rallies really took off in August 2015, when more than 30,000 people ...
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HCR HQ @hcrhq.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
A quick Politics Chat check-in with @hcrichardson.bsky.social. We should be back to our regular schedule on Tuesday! www.youtube.com/live/h5okrSc...
youtube.com
Politics Chat, October 2, 2026
YouTube video by Heather Cox Richardson
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HCR HQ @hcrhq.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Letters from an American October 1, 2026 Full letter available here: heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p… @hcrichardson.bsky.social
John Hudson of the Washington Post reported yesterday evening that the Trump administration is openly defying Congress, taking $52 million in military assistance lawmakers appropriated for European and Middle Eastern countries hurt by Russia’s war on Ukraine and diverting it to right-wing governments in Panama, Peru, Ecuador, and Colombia.  When the State Department notified Congress last month that it intended to make the switch, Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) and Representative Gregory Meeks (D-NY) put a hold on the funds.Late Wednesday, the administration told Congress it is defying the hold and moving ahead. The State Department told Hudson that Trump is prioritizing the Western Hemisphere and that the money would be better spent in Latin America than where Congress wanted it.  The U.S. Constitution is clear that only Congress can appropriate money and that the president must execute the laws as Congress passes them, but the Trump administration has been aggressive about its intention to take control of the power of the purse from Congress.Wednesday Tarini Parti, Marianne LeVine, and Michelle Hackman of the Wall Street Journal reported that the administration appears to have taken $20 million from the funds Congress appropriated for the Department of Homeland Security to pay for the ads boosting Trump before the midterms.  That destruction of the fundamental separation of powers at the heart of our government has gotten very little pushback from Republican lawmakers. And senators left Washington, D.C., today for a recess until after the midterms; the House is already in recess.Wednesday Paul McLeary, Stefanie Bolzen, and Jack Detsch of Politico reported that the Trump administration had not invited the United Kingdom, France, the Baltic countries, or other U.S. allies to a meeting of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) members next month in Poland.   The meeting is being directed by Defense Department policy chief Elbridge Colby and is designed to discuss NATO’s future. The exclusion of traditional U.S. allies has raised concerns that the U.S. is continuing to try to splinter NATO according to those Trump considers loyal and those whose actions he dislikes.
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HCR HQ @hcrhq.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
October 1, 2026 John Hudson of the Washington Post reported this evening that the Trump administration is openly defying Congress, taking $52 million in military assistance lawmakers appropriated for European and Middle Eastern countries hurt by Russia’s war on Ukraine and diverting it to…
heathercoxrichardson.substack.com
October 1, 2026
John Hudson of the Washington Post reported this evening that the Trump administration is openly defying Congress, taking $52 million in military assistance lawmakers appropriated for European and Mid...
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HCR HQ @hcrhq.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Election Momentum | From “What the Heck Just Happened?” with @hcrichardson.bsky.social & Dr. Joanne Freeman. @jbf1755.bsky.social Watch here: youtube.com/live/2fm6nYjUc3A
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HCR HQ @hcrhq.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Letters from an American September 30, 2026 Full letter available here: heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p… @hcrichardson.bsky.social
A Washington Post headline yesterday read: “U.S. withdraws forces in Iraq as balance of power shifts to Iran.”  Journalists Mustafa Salim and Alex Horton explained: After more than two decades, the deaths of more than 200,000 Iraqi civilians and more than 4,500 U.S. troops, the wounding of more than 30,000 U.S. military personnel, and the cost of more than $2.8 trillion, the last of the U.S. military forces in Iraq today pulled out of Erbil Air Base in northern Iraq.In December 2021 the military announced it was ending U.S. combat in Iraq, leaving about 2,500 troops to advise and assist Iraqi forces.  In 2023 the Iraqi government called for complete U.S. withdrawal, and former President Joe Biden and former Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani agreed to a withdrawal plan in 2024, but Iraq allowed a small contingent of advisors to remain after that deadline when the collapse of Bashar Al-Assad’s regime in Syria led to concerns that the confusion in Syria would allow militant Islamic groups to regain a foothold there.At the time Biden agreed to withdraw from Iraq, Iran appeared to be on the ropes, with its regime isolated from neighboring countries and laboring under sanctions and increasing public unrest. Now, as Salim and Horton note, Trump’s impulsive war on Iran has strengthened Iran’s hand in the region.  The U.S. invaded Iraq in 2003, in the wake of the 9/11 attacks on the United States two years before, although Iraq was not involved in that attack.After the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, a group of foreign policy hawks known as “neocons” were frustrated that Democratic President Bill Clinton was not pushing American ideology overseas as hard as they thought he should.   Believing that Iraq’s Saddam Hussein was destabilizing the Middle East, they saw removing him from power as key to their “Project for the New American Century.” Saddam was out of reach until September 11, 2001, when neocons saw al-Qaeda’s attack on the U.S. as an opportunity to “hit” Saddam Hussein, although he had not been involved in the attack.
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HCR HQ @hcrhq.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Last Week’s Impact on the Trump Regime | From yesterday’s Politics Chat with @hcrichardson.bsky.social Watch on YouTube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=us8wrm_vsKA
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HCR HQ @hcrhq.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Letters from an American September 29, 2026 Full letter available here: heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p… @hcrichardson.bsky.social
The scene that unfolded today at a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee was a snapshot of politics in the U.S. today.   Testifying under oath was Jack Smith, who as special counsel for the U.S. Department of Justice investigated Trump’s attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and his retention of classified documents after he left office in 2021.Questioning Smith were the senators, whose speech in Congress is protected by Article I, Section 6 of the U.S. Constitution.  It’s unclear why Senate Republicans thought it was a good idea to remind people of Trump’s attempt to overthrow an election when the midterms are less than forty days away. Some of them, though, clearly intended to appeal either to Trump or to the MAGA base by using their protected speech to insult and abuse Smith.Senator Eric Schmitt (R-MO) launched a hit on Smith, setting up the idea he was part of a conspiracy with Fulton County, Georgia, district attorney Fani Willis and her colleague Nathan Wade to persecute Trump.  Schmitt asked Smith: “Did you go to an NBA game between the Golden State Warriors and the Atlanta Hawks on February 3, 2024?”  Smith looked confused at the sudden turn in the hearing and asked Schmitt to repeat the question.Read more about what Jack Smith had to say at the hearing. Letters from an American September 29, 2026. Link in bio.
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HCR HQ @hcrhq.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
September 29, 2026 The scene that unfolded today at a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee was a snapshot of politics in the US today. Testifying under oath was Jack Smith, who as special counsel for the US DOJ, investigated Trump’s attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 election…
heathercoxrichardson.substack.com
September 29, 2026
The scene that unfolded today at a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee was a snapshot of politics in the U.S.
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HCR HQ @hcrhq.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Today's Politics Chat with @hcrichardson.bsky.social www.youtube.com/live/us8wrm_...
youtube.com
Politics Chat, September 29, 2026
YouTube video by Heather Cox Richardson
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HCR HQ @hcrhq.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Scott Colom’s campaign for Senate is picking up momentum in Mississippi. He’s one of the folks redefining the Democratic Party. He’s great, and his opponent Cindy Hyde-Smith is just a rubber stamp for Trump. @scolom.bsky.social Colom joined @hcrichardson.bsky.social in April to chat: https:/
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HCR HQ @hcrhq.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Letters from an American September 28, 2026 Full letter available here: heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p… @hcrichardson.bsky.social
It has become routine for Trump to spend the weekend posting wildly on social media, and this weekend was no exception.  After attacking the press on Saturday morning, at 9:18 he posted a video with foreboding music that sped up as the video played, showing a glowering Trump walking down a hall toward the camera while his voice intoned: “This is the final battle. With you at my side, we will demolish the deep state. We will expel the warmongers from our government. We will drive out the globalists, we will cast out the communists, Marxists, and fascists. We will throw off the sick political class that hates our country. We will rout the fake news media, and we will liberate America from these villains once and for all.”The administration clearly set out to provoke a backlash when it played what appeared to be the same ad later in the day during NFL games, Fox News Sunday, Saturday Night Live, and several college football games with the addition of the words: “Paid for by the U.S. Government.”  While the White House maintained the ad was a “public service announcement,” Richard Painter, who served as a White House ethics lawyer under President George W. Bush, said using public funds for “government-sponsored propaganda” could be “an impeachable offense.”On Friday the administration announced it is refusing to spend about a billion dollars Congress appropriated for programs that help the American people—a refusal the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office (GAO) says is illegal—and on Saturday, Trump used taxpayer money for his own vanity ads.  That misuse of public money comes on top of the administration announcement last week that it was removing about 760,000 people from Affordable Care Act health coverage rolls, claiming they were fraudulently enrolled in the program and that cutting them and dishonest brokers would save $2.2 billion.On Saturday, Patrick Thomas and Lindsay Wise of the Wall Street Journal reported that Trump’s tariffs that undermined the sales of agricultural products, his imports of foreign beef, and the rising costs of diesel, gas, and fertilizer have eroded his support in the agricultural areas that used to be the backbone of his support.  On Sunday, Samuel Benson and Eric Bazail-Eimil of Politico reported that Republicans in battleground states—Kansas, Maine, Michigan, Texas, and even Florida—are on defense as their voters turn against the ICE agents conducting raids in the states.
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HCR HQ @hcrhq.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
September 28, 2026 It has become routine for Trump to spend the weekend posting wildly on social media, and this weekend was no exception. After attacking the press on Saturday morning, at 9:18 he posted a video with foreboding music that sped up as the video played, showing a glowering Trump….
heathercoxrichardson.substack.com
September 28, 2026
It has become routine for Trump to spend the weekend posting wildly on social media, and this weekend was no exception.
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HCR HQ @hcrhq.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Regional Impacts of a U.S. Diesel Crisis | From Wednesday’s Lunch Money conversation with @pkrugman.bsky.social & @hcrichardson.bsky.social Watch here: youtube.com/live/zcMSxfXMMOo
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HCR HQ @hcrhq.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
September 26, 2026 Trump’s war on the free press is continuing. Last night, Scott Nover of the Washington Post reported that the White House would not allow reporters from CNN on Air Force One as part of the press pool to cover the president as he traveled to Tennessee for a college football game….
heathercoxrichardson.substack.com
September 26, 2026
Trump’s war on the free press is continuing.
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HCR HQ @hcrhq.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Democrats Are On This | From Thursday's Politics Chat with @hcrichardson.bsky.social Watch on YouTube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFumZBFk_LU
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HCR HQ @hcrhq.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
We’re Watching MAGA Collapse | Explainer from yesterday’s Politics Chat with @hcrichardson.bsky.social Watch here: youtu.be/aMVWs46Ykyo
youtu.be
We’re Watching MAGA Collapse | Explainer
In which I try to answer your questions about modern politics.... From Politics Chat, September 24, 2026 The live streamed version is available here: https:/...
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HCR HQ @hcrhq.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Questionable Actions and Deals Currently Taking Place | Explainer from yesterday’s Politics Chat with @hcrichardson.bsky.social Watch on YouTube: youtu.be/H8tDL-Qrd2g
youtu.be
Questionable Actions and Deals Currently Taking Place | Explainer
In which I try to answer your questions about modern politics.... From Politics Chat, September 24, 2026 The live streamed version is available here: https:/...
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HCR HQ @hcrhq.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Creating A Headache For Federal Programs | From yesterday’s Politics Chat with @hcrichardson.bsky.social Watch on YouTube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFumZBFk_LU
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HCR HQ @hcrhq.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Letters from an American September 24, 2026 Full letter available here: heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p… @hcrichardson.bsky.social
After a hearing Wednesday about Trump’s Friday ban of CNN, MS NOW, and Politico from the White House campus, very early yesterday morning—I was still awake writing Wednesday’s letter—U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly granted the request of the media outlets to stop Trump’s order banning members of their organizations from the White House complex.  Kelly, whom Trump appointed to the bench in 2017, challenged the argument of the White House that it had banned the journalists because they had endangered national security, noting that the stories to which administration lawyers claimed to object were “routine.”Kelly ordered the credentials of 78 journalists restored immediately.  Yesterday morning, the White House continued to deny reporters from CNN, Politico, and MS NOW access to the White House campus. Their lawyers asked for an emergency hearing because the administration had “already repeatedly violated the Court’s Order,” and soon after the judge ordered the administration to respond, the reporters were once again allowed into the area.  And then last night, at least CNN and MS NOW were blocked from access to the White House state dinner with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.The Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration is its signature policy, and last week a federal appeals court stopped the Trump administration from sending migrants to third countries, finding that the short timeline for those renditions stripped deportees of their right to due process.   The administration appears to have continued the renditions, arguing that the court had not officially notified a lower court of its decision and thus it was not yet in effect, prompting an appeals court to clarify that the flights must stop.Also yesterday, U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan criticized Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for ignoring his previous orders and continuing to hold people in “inhumane and unconstitutional” conditions at Manhattan’s 26 Federal Plaza, depriving detainees of “sleep, sanitary living conditions, basic personal hygiene needs, sufficient food and water, and adequate medical care.”  Although, as Josephine Walker of Axios points out, the administration likely sees the appalling conditions of its prisons as a way to induce migrants to leave, the judge required ICE to provide adequate space and humane conditions for detainees.
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HCR HQ @hcrhq.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
September 24, 2026 After a hearing yesterday about Trump’s Friday ban of CNN, MS NOW, and Politico from the White House campus, very early this morning—I was still awake writing yesterday’s letter—U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly granted the request of the media outlets to stop Trump’s order…
heathercoxrichardson.substack.com
September 24, 2026
After a hearing yesterday about Trump’s Friday ban of CNN, MS NOW, and Politico from the White House campus, very early this morning—I was still awake writing yesterday’s letter—U.S.
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HCR HQ @hcrhq.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
From American Conversations with @hcrichardson.bsky.social & David Corn, a veteran investigative journalist, political commentator and New York Times bestselling author. @davidcorn.bsky.social Watch the full conversation on YouTube: youtube.com/live/oFfW581VbvU
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HCR HQ @hcrhq.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Letters from an American September 23, 2026 Full letter available here: heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p… @hcrichardson.bsky.social
Tuesday, William Turton, Avi Asher-Schapiro, Molly Redden, and Kirsten Berg of ProPublica published a blockbuster story reporting that the anti-corruption group of the Federal Bureau of Investigation was investigating Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) for engaging in a pay-to-play scheme in which defense contractor Navatek made illegal donations to her 2020 campaign and later got multimillion-dollar contracts from the government. Collins is the chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee.  And yet, the story continues, when he returned to the White House in 2025, Trump fired the investigators building the case and largely stopped investigating public corruption.Although the story’s authors report that Navatek never produced a product the military needed, it did, in fact, receive millions in defense contracts.  The bribery angle of this story is huge. So, too, is that the story suggests that Trump, at least, might perceive that he has something to hold over Collins’s head to keep her behind his actions, even when they have dramatically weakened her power at the head of Appropriations.The relationship between the MAGA Republican agenda and the misuse of tax dollars is becoming more and more obvious since ProPublica ran the story last November of how contracts from the Department of Homeland Security appeared to be going to those personally tied to then–Homeland Security secretary Kristi Noem and her ally Corey Lewandowski.  Tuesday, Liz Essley Whyte of the Wall Street Journal reported that Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. funded enhanced security for himself by taking funds from the department’s Office of Minority Health.On a far larger scale is the use of tax dollars to pay authoritarian governments to imprison immigrants from the United States who are not their own citizens.  On Monday, David Nakamura and Adam Taylor of the Washington Post reported that the State Department’s “Office of Remigration” has pledged at least $410 million to facilitate third-country renditions to expel migrants that U.S. courts say cannot be returned to their home countries for fear they will be harmed or killed.
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HCR HQ @hcrhq.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
September 23, 2026 Yesterday, William Turton, Avi Asher-Schapiro, Molly Redden, and Kirsten Berg of ProPublica published a blockbuster story reporting that the anti-corruption group of the Federal Bureau of Investigation was investigating Senator Susan Collins for engaging in a pay-to-play scheme….
heathercoxrichardson.substack.com
September 23, 2026
Yesterday, William Turton, Avi Asher-Schapiro, Molly Redden, and Kirsten Berg of ProPublica published a blockbuster story reporting that the anti-corruption group of the Federal Bureau of Investigatio...
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HCR HQ @hcrhq.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Trump’s 35 Minute United Nations Speech | Explainer from yesterday’s Politics Chat with @hcrichardson.bsky.social Watch here: youtu.be/ekX-2T5cvtM
youtu.be
Trump’s 35 Minute United Nations Speech | Explainer
In which I try to answer your questions about modern politics.... From Politics Chat, September 22, 2026 The live streamed version is available here: https:/...
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HCR HQ @hcrhq.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Trump's Speech Is Fit for a Dictator | From yesterday’s Politics Chat with @hcrichardson.bsky.social Watch on YouTube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvtUBfflVsI
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HCR HQ @hcrhq.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Letters from an American September 22, 2026 Full letter available here: heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p… @hcrichardson.bsky.social
In 1945, still reeling from World War II, representatives from 50 nations reached back to the U.S. Constitution when they wrote the Preamble to the United Nations charter.   “WE THE PEOPLES OF THE UNITED NATIONS” were, they wrote, “DETERMINED to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind, and to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights...in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small, and to establish conditions under which justice and respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be maintained.”Central to that effort was the principle, stated in Article 2, that “[a]ll Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations.”  The U.N. General Assembly has been meeting in New York City since September 8, and yesterday began its high-level General Debate, the annual meeting of the heads of state and heads of government that launches the General Assembly session. At the General Debate, all 193 U.N. member states are invited to address the General Assembly.In his speech yesterday, President Donald J. Trump, reading haltingly off a teleprompter, said: “I have a big decision to make. Will a deal be made with Iran that lets them rebuild and create a far greater country than it ever was before, maybe one of the greatest in the Middle East or even the world? Do I drive them into hell with no chance of survival and no hope of future greatness or generations?”  Much of the Iranian delegation walked out.Trump’s immediate switch to a talking point about the midterms suggests that his speech was aimed at U.S. voters more than the U.N. audience, but it should not be overlooked that he stood in front of world leaders and rejected the premise of the U.N.  Touting his own “Board of Peace” and continuing his fiction that he has solved multiple wars, he outlined a fantasy worldview of himself as a powerful dictator, a man of action who rejects the diplomacy at the heart of the U.N.
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HCR HQ @hcrhq.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
September 22, 2026 In 1945, still reeling from World War II, representatives from 50 nations reached back to the U.S. Constitution when they wrote the Preamble to the United Nations charter….
heathercoxrichardson.substack.com
September 22, 2026
In 1945, still reeling from World War II, representatives from 50 nations reached back to the U.S.
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HCR HQ @hcrhq.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Today's Politics Chat with @hcrichardson.bsky.social www.youtube.com/live/CvtUBff...
youtube.com
Politics Chat, September 22, 2026
YouTube video by Heather Cox Richardson
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HCR HQ @hcrhq.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Going live in one hour—Politics Chat streaming today at 3pm PT / 6pm ET. @hcrichardson.bsky.social Join here: youtube.com/live/CvtUBfflVsI?featur…
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HCR HQ @hcrhq.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Political Off Ramps | From “What the Heck Just Happened?” with @hcrichardson.bsky.social & Dr. Joanne Freeman. @jbf1755.bsky.social Watch the full conversation on YouTube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=vziDcKW8KOM
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HCR HQ @hcrhq.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Letters from an American September 21, 2026 Full letter available here: heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p… @hcrichardson.bsky.social
On September 18, while White House chief of staff Susie Wiles was out of town, Trump suddenly announced he was banning CNN, MS NOW, and Politico from the White House.   “Media Outlets shouldn’t be able to constantly write or report FICTION and LIES when they’re covering the President of the United States, the Trump Administration, or the United States of America,” Trump wrote. “Other Fake News Media Outlets to follow.”The next day, reporters from those outlets attempting to enter the White House complex where the press facilities are located were denied entry, and Secret Service agents confiscated their press badges.  MAGA Republicans have tried to claim that President Joe Biden cancelled 400 press passes. In fact, in 2023 the Biden administration tightened the rules to get a “hard” press pass that allows repeated, unaccompanied access to the press area of the White House.With that change, the number of White House hard passes fell from 1,417 to 975 because many of those who held passes didn’t reapply. Those people could still get day passes. In any event, these changes regarded individual reporters, not entire media outlets.  Yesterday CNN, MS NOW, and Politico sued Trump, Trump’s communications director Steven Cheung, Secret Service director Sean Curran, and White House chief of staff Wiles for violating both the Fifth and the First Amendments.They are suing for the restoration of their press credentials for their coverage of the White House. U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly, appointed by Trump to the bench in 2017, was assigned the case.  Although Trump appointed Kelly, in 2018, the judge ruled that Trump’s revoking of journalist Jim Acosta’s hard press pass likely violated his due process rights. Trump groused that the news outlets “have drawn a great Judge, for them, a man who ruled in favor of Jim Acosta.”
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HCR HQ @hcrhq.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
September 21, 2026 On September 18, while White House chief of staff Susie Wiles was out of town, Trump suddenly announced he was banning CNN, MS NOW, and Politico from the White House.…
heathercoxrichardson.substack.com
September 21, 2026
On September 18, while White House chief of staff Susie Wiles was out of town, Trump suddenly announced he was banning CNN, MS NOW, and Politico from the White House.
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HCR HQ @hcrhq.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
September 20, 2026 Thousands of people gathered outside the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Friday evening to protest Trump’s takeover of the building and his threat to shut it down or even demolish it unless his name goes onto the facade….
heathercoxrichardson.substack.com
September 20, 2026
Thousands of people gathered outside the John F.
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HCR HQ @hcrhq.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
On September 19, 1676, three hundred and fifty years ago today, Nathaniel Bacon and his followers burned Jamestown, the capital of the Virginia Colony. The destruction of the seat of government was the culmination of a year of conflict between the governor and poor settlers in the colony….
heathercoxrichardson.substack.com
September 19, 2026
On September 19, 1676, three hundred and fifty years ago today, Nathaniel Bacon and his followers burned Jamestown, the capital of the Virginia Colony.
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HCR HQ @hcrhq.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
September 18, 2026 According to the American Automobile Association, diesel hit its highest recorded average price today at just above $6.44 per gallon. Diesel moves most of the consumer goods in the United States.… heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/september-...
heathercoxrichardson.substack.com
September 18, 2026
According to the American Automobile Association, diesel hit its highest recorded average price today at just above $6.44 per gallon.
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HCR HQ @hcrhq.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
From yesterday's Politics Chat. Watch now on YouTube: youtube.com/live/M6Px859BIBE?featur…
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HCR HQ @hcrhq.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
September 17, 2026 In 1761, 55-year-old Benjamin Franklin attended the coronation of King George III and later wrote that he expected the young monarch’s reign would “be happy and truly glorious.” Fifteen years later, in 1776, he helped to draft and then signed the Declaration of Independence.…
heathercoxrichardson.substack.com
September 17, 2026
In 1761, 55-year-old Benjamin Franklin attended the coronation of King George III and later wrote that he expected the young monarch’s reign would “be happy and truly glorious.” Fifteen years later, i...
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HCR HQ @hcrhq.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
The Administration’s AI Freak Out | From yesterday's Politics Chat. Watch now on YouTube: www.youtube.com/live/1figRUiJ4ew?si…
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HCR HQ @hcrhq.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Today's Politics Chat with @hcrichardson.bsky.social www.youtube.com/live/M6Px859...
youtube.com
Politics Chat, September 17, 2026
YouTube video by Heather Cox Richardson
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HCR HQ @hcrhq.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
September 16, 2026 Yesterday U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper of the District of Columbia refused to permit the Kennedy Center board, stacked by Trump with his own loyalists, to return Trump’s name to the facade of the building. Cooper reiterated that Congress had prohibited such an addition….
heathercoxrichardson.substack.com
September 16, 2026
Yesterday U.S.
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HCR HQ @hcrhq.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
September 15, 2026 Seven years ago, on September 15, 2019, after about a six-week hiatus during the summer, I wrote a Facebook post that started: “Many thanks to all of you who have reached out to see if I’m okay.…
heathercoxrichardson.substack.com
September 15, 2026
Seven years ago, on September 15, 2019, after about a six-week hiatus during the summer, I wrote a Facebook post that started:
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HCR HQ @hcrhq.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Thank you for being here. From today's Politics Chat. Watch now on YouTube. www.youtube.com/live/1figRUiJ4ew?si…
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HCR HQ @hcrhq.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
A False Narrative | From American Conversations with @hcrichardson.bsky.social & Ray Madoff, professor at Boston College Law School and author of "The Second Estate: How the Tax Code Made an American Aristocracy." Watch the full conversation on YouTube: youtube.com/live/QqRyG8nzmCs
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HCR HQ @hcrhq.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Letters from an American September 14, 2026 Full letter available here: heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p… @hcrichardson.bsky.social
Yesterday morning, Justin Elliott, Brett Murphy, Joshua Kaplan, and Alex Mierjeski of ProPublica broke the news that Umar Kremlev, a Russian oligarch close to Vladimir Putin, spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on the wedding of Donald Trump Jr. and Bettina Anderson in May. Kremlev attended the wedding along with a large group of Russians whose presence, the journalists note, puzzled the other guests.  This news reveals an extraordinary development, the journalists note: “a member of Putin’s circle financially supporting the president’s son and gaining intimate access to the Trump family.”Later in the day, news broke that the inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security had released a report detailing how the now-closed detention camp in the Florida Everglades, offensively dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz,” violated the standards of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).   The report says the center failed in six categories: medical care, food service, personal hygiene, recreation, environmental health and safety, and special management units.People were crammed into overcrowded cells they couldn’t leave as often as required, were allowed showers only three times a week, and had little access to medical care, lawyers, clean water, or safe food. Some people were locked in tiny individual metal cages with about 18 square feet of floor space for up to 2 hours, some of which were outdoors.  Gillian Brockell of The American Prospect suggested that the inspector general’s report “is likely part of a cover-up.”She noted that eight months ago, Amnesty International reported that the outdoor cages were too small for someone to stand up, that they had no awning, and that people were chained to them. The Amnesty International report also said time in the cages could be longer than two hours.  Then Nick Corasaniti and Hamed Aleaziz reported in the New York Times on another whistleblower, this one alleging that in their zeal to find noncitizens on voter rolls, inspectors under the direction of top Homeland Security leaders may have broken state laws.
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HCR HQ @hcrhq.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
September 14, 2026 This morning, Justin Elliott, Brett Murphy, Joshua Kaplan, and Alex Mierjeski of ProPublica broke the news that Umar Kremlev, a Russian oligarch close to Vladimir Putin, spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on the wedding of Donald Trump Jr. and Bettina Anderson in May.…
heathercoxrichardson.substack.com
September 14, 2026
This morning, Justin Elliott, Brett Murphy, Joshua Kaplan, and Alex Mierjeski of ProPublica broke the news that Umar Kremlev, a Russian oligarch close to Vladimir Putin, spent hundreds of thousands of...
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HCR HQ @hcrhq.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
From American Conversations with @hcrichardson.bsky.social & @jessicatarlov.bsky.social — liberal co-host of The Five on Fox News — who joined me to talk about her new book “I Disagree: Winning Arguments Without Losing Friends” out tomorrow. Watch on YouTube: youtube.com/live/lhond
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HCR HQ @hcrhq.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Letters from an American September 13, 2026 Full letter available here: heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p… @hcrichardson.bsky.social
On Saturday, September 12, Dario Amodei, the chief executive officer of the artificial intelligence company Anthropic, published a 3,800-word essay calling for AI companies to slow down their improvement of AI models.   Amodei expressed concern that AI models are themselves pushing advances faster than engineers can understand them. Within a year, he warned, such a swarm could take over the entire internet, causing hundreds of billions of dollars in damage.In his essay, Amodei called for AI companies to commit to giving embedded third-party evaluators access to their work, rather like the regulatory supervisors in banking. He called for AI companies in democratic countries to establish safety standards and limit their rate of progress.   And he called for “[t]he US and other democratic governments [to] attempt to coordinate with authoritarian governments, to the extent this is possible, while taking seriously the challenges of verifying compliance.”As Mike Isaac of the New York Times noted, Amodei’s call came days after an Anthropic researcher, Jacob Coxon, resigned, posting on social media that neither OpenAI nor Anthropic was “acting responsibly. They are racing straight to self-improving superintelligence and gambling with our lives.” They are, he said, building “superhuman systems that can hack anything, revolutionize any field overnight, and acquire real power and resources.”  “The people building AI earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade,” Coxon said.Still, Kate Conger of the New York Times noted last week that in July, more than 1,300 employees from Anthropic, OpenAI, Meta, and Google’s DeepMind—all leading AI companies—signed an open letter asking the U.S. government to regulate AI to slow down its development.  After Amodei’s essay appeared, Sam Altman, the chief executive officer of OpenAI; Elon Musk, who has been increasing spending on AI through his SpaceX rocket company; and Demis Hassabis, chair of Google DeepMind, all posted their support for slowing down the pace of AI improvements.
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HCR HQ @hcrhq.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
September 13, 2026 On Saturday, September 12, Dario Amodei, the chief executive officer of the artificial intelligence company Anthropic, published a 3,800-word essay calling for AI companies to slow down their improvement of AI models…. heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/september-...
heathercoxrichardson.substack.com
September 13, 2026
On Saturday, September 12, Dario Amodei, the chief executive officer of the artificial intelligence company Anthropic, published a 3,800-word essay calling for AI companies to slow down their improvem...
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