It has been almost a year since President Donald Trump withdrew the U.S. from the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement, and one might think proponents of the move are feeling vindicated. Iran has stuck to the limits in the agreement on nuclear fuel, despite the re-imposition of crippling sanctions on its banks and oil exports. Yes, it is still making ...Read more

To gauge by the media storm back home, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro's visit to the United States this week fell somewhere between a debacle and a joke. "Victory, yes, but Trump's," declared one newspaper editorial. "Never has Brazil been so bluntly and grotesquely humiliated," raged one critic on my wife's WhatsApp group. Not even the ...Read more

It looks like Joe Biden is looking at every possible gimmick for his presidential run. First there were reports that he's considering naming a running mate early in the process, which is bad enough. Now it seems he could be pondering a pledge to serve only one term. If he does that, he's really disqualifying himself as a serious candidate.

This...Read more

The late, brilliant comedian Joan Rivers' favorite catchphrase was "Grow up!" It was said in jest, but meant in earnest to wake her shocked audiences from their stupor long enough to realize that her comedic targets were doing horrible things all the time.

It is in this same spirit that I urge the nation to "Grow up!" in its understanding of ...Read more

For nearly two years, the nation has been bitterly divided by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III's ongoing investigation into the 2016 presidential election and its aftermath. To President Donald Trump, the Mueller investigation has been the "single greatest witch hunt in American political history" -- a "disgrace" and "scandal" that is ...Read more

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has made headlines for one unprecedented move after another, from primarying a member of the Democratic leadership to introducing a Green New Deal. But perhaps her most shocking decision yet is also one that is painfully obvious: paying her staff and interns a living wage.

See, working for Congress should be an ...Read more

Ideally, a pregnant minor should tell her parents if she's seeking an abortion.

Ideally she should also tell her parents if she plans to continue the pregnancy and if she plans to give up the baby for adoption.

And, also ideally, all minors should tell their parents if they're using prescription contraceptives, if they're being treated for ...Read more

He's the mayor of a small Midwestern city known for football and virtually nothing else, and he was constitutionally too young to run for president until literally the day before Donald Trump was sworn in, in January 2017. Yet attired in a gleaming white shirt and tie, sans sports coat, South Bend's Pete Buttigieg showed up at MSNBC's "Morning ...Read more

President Trump has once again decided to attack his old political nemesis, John McCain, raising him from the dead like a perversion of the Lazarus story during this Lenten season. I have something to say about that. But first, a caveat.

This column is not for the people who hate this president. "Hate" is not hyperbole here, because many of ...Read more

Republicans had a field day criticizing Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) when her remarks crossed the line between legitimately criticizing Israel and engaging in anti-Semitic tropes. But will they say anything about President Donald Trump crossing the line between legitimately criticizing anti-Semitism and painting all Democrats as anti-Semites?

Of ...Read more

Earlier this month, President Donald Trump told the Conservative Political Action Conference that he would sign an executive order "requiring colleges and universities to support free speech if they want federal research dollars."

Even if you worry about threats to free speech on campus, there was something ominous about Trump's pledge.

First,...Read more

FORT WORTH, Texas -- Last week, the world watched with horror as a hate-inspired gunman slaughtered at least 50 people in two New Zealand mosques.

It was half a world away, but eerily familiar. We've seen this kind of evil carried out in our houses of worship before, in Charleston, S.C., Pittsburgh, Pa., in Sutherland Springs, Texas, and much ...Read more

MIAMI -- There's something about Cuba that assaults the heart when you least expect it.

On a clear chilly day in January, I stood atop windswept Mount Nebo in Jordan, the revered place where Moses, leader of the Exodus from Egyptian slavery, is said to have been bestowed with the view of the Promised Land by God.

This panoramic vista of the ...Read more

Day by day, the prosecutorial vise that is special counsel Robert Mueller's probe into Russian interference in America's 2016 election has been depicted as tightening down upon Donald Trump's presidency.

News cycle by news cycle, reporters and pundits speculate that Mueller's long-awaited final report may be just days away from becoming our ...Read more

A federal judge this week ordered the Trump administration to redo environmental reviews of oil and gas leases on several hundred thousand acres of federal lands in Wyoming that were approved by the Obama administration in 2015-16, agreeing with environmental groups that the Bureau of Land Management failed to properly estimate the leases' ...Read more

A credible case can be made that conservatives face considerable hostility at some universities. The problem may not be nearly as pervasive as some right-wing activists assert, but high-profile incidents in which conservative speakers have been heckled, prevented from speaking or disinvited from previously announced campus appearances have ...Read more

The mass murderer of 51 worshipers in New Zealand mosques last week issued a manifesto in which he asked himself this question: "Were/are you a supporter of Donald Trump?"

His answer: "As a symbol of renewed white identity and common purpose? Sure. As a policy maker and leader? Dear god no."

In other words, there was no linear connection ...Read more

I get it, Devin Nunes.

Your feelings are hurt.

You don't like being called names, or being told that you belong in prison.

But when a person has a public profile -- even a teensy one like mine -- attacks will follow. Vilification comes with the territory. (As does praise, but whatever.)

Criticism, even unfair or vile criticism, is a small ...Read more

Eliminating the Electoral College from U.S. presidential elections is understandably a hot topic among Democratic contenders. Their party won the popular vote in 2000 and 2016 but lost the presidency both times. But such a change wouldn't benefit all candidates equally. Because campaigns would no longer be trying to win certain states, but ...Read more