John Youngbear/AP

Ted Kaczynski, known widely as the Unabomber, was found dead in his prison cell Saturday morning, according to the Associated Press, which cited a spokesperson for the Bureau of Prisons. The 81-year-old, who was serving a life sentence in Colorado, had been moved to a North Carolina medical facility due to poor health. The cause of death was not immediately known.

Across nearly two decades of terror starting in 1978, Kaczynski fashioned 16 “increasingly sophisticated” bombs, which he then mailed or hand-delivered, killing three people and injuring scores more. The name, “Unabomber” derived from a six-letter acronym used by the FBI’s taskforce investigating the cases, UNABOM, the “UNA” being a reference to some of his targets, university campuses and airliners.

Kaczynski was finally captured in 1996, a year after he sent the FBI a 35,000-word manifesto that was published by the Washington Post and the New York Times, causing family members to tip off authorities. He pleaded guilty in 1998, and was sentenced to a Supermax facility in Colorado.

Kaczynski’s deadly spree, and the accompanying manhunt, reverberated for decades through American politics and culture. The current Attorney General, Merrick Garland, oversaw the case against Kaczynski—a high-stakes investigation that made a lasting impression on the then-prosecutor. He described the raid on Kaczynski’s Montana cabin to students at the University of Chicago Law School in 2017: “You can read about criminal law as much as you want,” he said. “But sitting around a table trying to figure out whether you have enough probable cause to search the cabin—that was a really complicated problem.”

Kaczynski’s stated desire to attack industrialized society was seized upon by some in an attempt to link his crimes to the environmental movement at large. In 2012, the ultra-conservative Heartland Institute (described by environmentalist Bill McKibben as the “nerve center of climate change denial”) put up a billboard near Chicago that compared anyone who thought climate change was real to Kaczynski, in an attempt to show that “the most prominent advocates of global warming aren’t scientists. They are murderers, tyrants, and madmen.” The billboard screamed, “I still believe in Global Warming. Do you?” in giant, crimson letters. (Heartland eventually removed the billboard.) The group also wanted to feature the faces of Charles Manson, Fidel Castro, and Osama bin Laden.

Yuri Gripas/Abaca/Sipa USA/AP

On Wednesday, Donald Trump became the first former president to face a federal indictment. Today, federal prosecutors released a scathing indictment outlining charges stemming from Trump’s decision to bring classified documents with him to his Florida estate after his term as president ended.

The 37 charges brought by a grand jury include conspiracy to obstruct justice and willful retention of classified information. 

You can read the full indictment here:

Steve Helber/ AP

Large swaths of the United States are buried under a blanket of smoke, with some states facing the worst air pollution in decades. Virginia is no exception; state officials have warned that the air quality is too hazardous for prolonged public exposure in certain regions.

But while Virginians breathe in toxic wildfire smoke this week, state regulators appear more concerned with helping Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s plans to exit a coalition largely credited for incentivizing utility companies to cut carbon emissions. On Wednesday, in a 4-3 vote, the state’s Air Quality Control Board approved the governor’s plan to remove Virginia from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, an 11-state coalition environmentalists have praised as an effective, low-cost tactic to fight climate change.

Virginia joined the group in 2020, becoming the first southern state to participate in the program that creates mandatory caps on carbon emissions from power plants. Power sector companies are also required to receive allowances for every short ton of carbon dioxide they emit, money that, in turn, is used to fund energy-efficient initiatives. 

Since coming into office, Youngkin has made it a priority to remove the state from the RGGI, claiming that the program is an unfair tax on residents and businesses that doesn’t help the environment. But environmentalists say otherwise. During Wednesday’s hearing, the Southern Environmental Law Center cited recent EPA data that showed Virginia’s carbon emissions from power plants declined by about 5.5 million tons a year or 16.8 percent since 2020.

Charlie Neibergall/ AP

Nikki Haley is once again trying to have it both ways. In response to a question asking her to define “woke” during a CNN town hall on Sunday, the Republican presidential candidate suggested that transgender girls in sports can be blamed for a rise in suicide rates among teens. 

“How are we supposed to get our girls used to the fact that biological boys are in their locker rooms? And then we wonder why a third of our teenage girls seriously contemplated suicide last year,” Haley said, calling the topic the “women’s issue of our time.”

“We should be growing strong girls, confident girls,” she continued.

The former South Carolina governor appeared to be citing a recent CDC survey that found nearly a third of teenage girls have seriously considered suicide. But there is no evidence to support Haley’s assertion, which was swiftly blasted as anti-trans. In fact, the same CDC study revealed that LGBTQ teens are at higher risk of suicide and that transgender youth experience greater levels of violence.

Haley’s remarks, which come amid a sharp rise in anti-trans laws across the country, are an escalation of a 2021 editorial she wrote for the National Review, in which she called the inclusion of trans women in sports an “attack on women’s rights.”

Nikki Haley discussing trans girls in kids sports: "How are we supposed to get our girls used to the fact that biological boys are in their locker room. And then we wonder why a third of our teenage girls seriously contemplated suicide last year." pic.twitter.com/rA2lD06yVe

— Abby D. Phillip (@abbydphillip) June 5, 2023

When pressed on whether there was any room for “humanity” in the so-called debate, Haley, in typical fashion, seemed to slightly backtrack, insisting that “we need to take care of these kids.”

“I think there is a humane way to do it,” she continued. “Let’s get them the help, the therapy, whatever they need so that they can feel better and not be suicidal, but don’t go and cause all these other kids to feel like that pressure is on them. They don’t deserve that, and they don’t need that, either.”

Haley did not offer advice on how to square that call for humanity with her own suggestion that trans people in locker rooms could be responsible for suicidal ideation.

Jemal Countess/Getty

Update, June 1: In a 52-46 vote, the Senate passed a resolution to overturn Biden’s student debt cancellation plan. The bill now heads for the president’s desk. He has already vowed to veto it.

If you’re one of more than 43 million people with student loan debt in the United States, you may soon be forced to start repayments once again. On Wednesday, the House passed a deal to raise the debt ceiling, which includes a provision ending the pandemic-era pause on student loan payments. The agreement now heads to the Senate where lawmakers on both sides of the aisle hope to pass it by late Friday.

So what do borrowers need to know? If the deal passes in its current form, repayments and interest accrual will kick in at the end of August. That’s roughly the same time the Biden administration had previously said that the federal pause would finally end after more than three years, eight extensions, and two presidencies. But those hoping for another last-minute extension this time around are out of luck; the debt ceiling agreement specifically blocks President Biden from issuing one without congressional approval.

Biden’s plan to cancel student debt—something House Republicans sought to kill in an initial debt ceiling draft—was spared, and the proposal to eliminate $20,000 worth of debt for Pell Grant recipients and up to $10,000 for borrowers who earn less than $125,000 a year remains in the hands of the Supreme Court. Court observers, as my colleague Hannah Levintova reported, are pessimistic that student loan forgiveness will survive the high court’s conservative majority. And even if justices do allow Biden’s plan to continue, future legal challenges are expected. There is, however, a whole other Republican-led measure seeking to repeal the student loan forgiveness plan that just advanced in the Senate. But Biden has vowed to veto it.

If all this sounds confusing, rest assured, you’re not alone. Both the debt ceiling provision and the upcoming high-stakes Supreme Court ruling are all but certain to add to the general confusion over repayments. One thing that isn’t confusing, however, is the immense relief that would affect countless lives if student loan forgiveness actually wins. 

Imago/Zuma

In a move lauded by safe streets advocates, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration proposed a new rule this morning that would require automatic emergency braking (AEB) on new cars and light trucks.

AEB uses sensors to detect objects in a car’s path, like pedestrians or other vehicles, and automatically brakes if the driver fails to react. Most light-duty vehicles sold in the US are already equipped with some level of AEB, but the proposed rule would hold the braking systems to a higher standard. Among the new rules would be a requirement for AEB to detect cyclists and pedestrians at night, which is when most pedestrian fatalities occur, according to NHTSA. The new rule also seeks to increase safety for cars traveling at higher speeds.

Today .@NHTSAgov is proposing a rule to make AEB mandatory in all vehicles and pedestrian AEB mandatory in light duty vehicles, requiring FULL crash avoidance, a shift that would make roadways safer for all. 🙌🏼 pic.twitter.com/VlKQvZt64z

— danisimons (@danisimons) May 31, 2023

NHTSA estimates that the rule, if finalized, could save at least 360 lives and prevent at least 24,000 injuries a year. The provision comes amid a nationwide surge in traffic fatalities. While the proposal would not address the nation’s lurch toward the ever-larger SUVs that often prove deadly in pedestrian crashes, it is a small but significant step toward preventing crashes in the first place.

You can read the full proposed rule here. And if you’re interested in how new technology could be implemented to increase safety, here’s my report on the possibility of ending drunk driving under a new regulation passed as part of the infrastructure bill.

Michael Siluk/ Getty

If you haven’t ordered your free Covid tests yet, you might want to hurry. US residents are still allowed to order free tests online until 11:59 p.m. PT on May 31. After that, the federal program will be officially terminated. According to the Covid.gov website, every US household is eligible for up to four at-home testing kits, as long as their last order was before December 15. 

Since the World Health Organization officially declared an end to the Covid public health crisis on May 11, a slew of pandemic-era resources and protections have ended.

Now, anyone looking to purchase once-free Covid tests will have to discuss the cost with their personal insurer, regardless of whether it is a laboratory or at-home test. Those without insurance can reportedly receive free tests via outreach programs.

Dion speaks at SXSW in 2016.Mindy Best/Getty

Last week, Florida Gov. Ronald Dion DeSantis announced his run for president of the United States. In the avalanche of background coverage, one point hasn’t been discussed much: DeSantis’ middle name. “Dion”? 

According to reporting from NBC News, it’s a tribute to the early rockstar, and Bronx-born heartthrob, Dion DiMucci. When Henry J. Gomez interviewed fraternity brothers of DeSantis’ father, Ronald (they call him a “jokester”), one said that the elder DeSantis was “into music.” The potential president got his middle name, according to the report, as “a tribute” to Dion.

I reached out to Dion to ask if he had any comment on his (middle) namesake’s run. A spokesperson told me that the artist “predictably” is “not going to engage” beyond the following: “Ron DeSantis’ father has great taste in Rock ‘n’ Roll. God bless America.”

There you go. Tepid. But respectful. We’re doing the work over here to cover the 2024 presidential primary.

If you’re wondering why there’s a God bless on the end there, it might be worth knowing that DiMucci had a Christian rock phase. After helping birth “Rock ‘n’ Roll”—at least the commercialized, teeny-bop-friendly version that soared in the 1950s—Dion’s career wandered. In the 1960s, he did have solo hits after his success with the Belmonts. But the British invasion, and the cataclysms of 1968, saw his style tossed aside. In the 1970s, he had a very underappreciated troubadour thing going. In 1976, Dion released Born to Be With You—a baroque pop record disliked by critics—with the infamous Phil Specter producing. That decade he also put out Sweetheart (with Phil Everly on backing vocals on a song!) and, again, no luck. Eventually, DiMucci found God. In 1983, he released, “I Put My Idols Away.” Here are the lyrics to the title track:

I was raised on New York rock and roll

I took control

I was cool

Made the rounds

Made the record hops

I hit the top

Played the fool

From above I truly heard a friend

Truly now you must be born again

If Dylan could go Christian, why not Dion? It seems this didn’t lead to much in terms of politics, except for avoidance of such earthly matters. In 2020, Der Spiegel interviewed Dion and he rebuffed an election question like this:

SPIEGEL: Sam Cooke once sang: “A Change Is Gonna Come.” Translated into today: Do you believe in a change in the US presidential election?

DiMucci: I know nothing about politics. That’s why I don’t want to comment on Trump. Some like him, others hate him. I believe in God more than politicians and stay out of it.

In 1989, Lou Reed—who loved Dion’s voice—inducted him into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. That same year, Reed appeared on a track on Dion’s album Yo Frankie. (Produced by Dave Edmunds, of Rockpile.) It had special guests Paul Simon and Bryan Adams. And it got a positive review in Rolling Stone. Dion had his return to secular music.

It’s unclear at what stage of Dion’s career Ronald DeSantis loved enough to name his son partially after DiMucci. But consider this an important point in an ongoing confirmation of something one side of my family has noted: DeSantis would be the first Italian American president in the history of the United States.

Cillian Sherlock/PA Wire/Zuma

Last night, in a Twitter Spaces marred by glitches, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced that he was running for president. Within hours, former President Trump took to Instagram with a seemingly AI-generated video so absurd that I had to double-check that it was in fact posted by @realdonaldtrump.

The video, laced with homophobic and anti-Semitic innuendo, sees Elon Musk, Ron DeSantis, George Soros, Klaus Schwab, Dick Cheney, Adolph Hitler, the devil, and the FBI in a fictional Twitter Space. In the video, DeSantis attempts to announce his presidential run but is interrupted by a babbling Soros, a coughing Cheney, a yelling Hitler, and an FBI representative who publicly wonders, “OK, so how are we gonna take out Trump, you guys?”

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by President Donald J. Trump (@realdonaldtrump)

After DeSantis manages to spit out the words, “I’m running for fucking president, okay?” Trump’s voice—also seemingly AI-generated, despite coming from his own Instagram account—jumps in to make his 2024 presidential pitch: “The devil, I’m gonna kick your ass very soon. Hitler, you’re already dead. Dick Cheney, sounds like you’ll be joining Hitler very soon. Klaus Schwab and George Soros, I’m putting both your asses in jail. And Ron DeSanctimonious can kiss my big beautiful 2024 presidential ass.”

The video is a preview of a 2024 Republican primary that will see DeSantis and Trump rolling around in the muck, using whatever memes are at their disposal to score internet points and, hopefully, votes. If there was ever a time when presidential races were dignified and respectful, well, that’s long in the rearview. Welcome to 2024. Welcome to hell.

Bill Clark/AP

Amid high-wire negotiations over the nation’s debt ceiling and the increasing likelihood of a US default, House Republicans on Tuesday took a moment to turn their attention to a used chapstick belonging to House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy. That chapstick—which, according to Politico, was a cherry-flavored souvenir from Florida Congressman Aaron Bean’s campaign—was to be auctioned off to benefit the House Republican electoral committee. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene secured the prize by pledging $100,000 from her own campaign coffers.

NEW: During GOP conference today, House Rs did about a 15-min fundraising auction for chapstick used by Speaker McCarthy.

The winner: Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), whose winning bid was $100,000, her Spox confirms to me.

— Olivia Beavers (@Olivia_Beavers) May 23, 2023

“They doing this insane chapstick shit while the country teeters on default,” Rep. Ilhan Omar tweeted as confusion abounded. The stunt prompted hygiene concerns, as well as questions from this writer over what could compel someone to debase themselves by voluntarily becoming the new owner of used chapstick. That was all by design, of course. The winning bid—which, perhaps most importantly, also buys Greene a dinner meeting between McCarthy and Greene’s own supporters—came as the latest evidence of the intense bond between these two high-profile Republicans.

But look one step further out from the weirdness, and you’ll see that the stunt as a fairly mundane window into how fundraising in the swamp tends to work: Donors give to politicians, who then bolster their own power and influence by passing that money along to other political candidates. Greene’s standing among Republicans grows; so-called establishment candidates in swing districts happily accept chapstick-stained dollars, despite everything hideous there is to know about the QAnon-supporting congresswoman from Georgia. The wheels of power keep turning.

My colleague Jeremy Schulman, who would like to clarify that he did not edit his own name into this post, said it best: This story is less about the gross chapstick than it is about a lame inside joke involving the most extreme lawmaker in the United States transferring wads of cash to the most spineless. So, totally normal stuff.

Rebecca Blackwell/AP

The NAACP is the latest organization to warn Black people and members of marginalized communities against traveling to Florida amid the relentless right-wing bills signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis. The travel advisory, issued on Saturday, condemned Florida as “openly hostile towards African Americans, people of color, and LGBTQ+” people and urged people to fight the state’s attack on democratic institutions.

“Under its current Governor, the State of Florida has engaged in an all-out attack on Black Americans, accurate Black history, voting rights, members of the LGBTQ+community, immigrants, women’s reproductive rights, and free speech, while simultaneously embracing a culture of fear, bullying, and intimidation by public officials,” the NAACP said in a statement.

“Before traveling to Florida, please understand that the State of Florida devalues and marginalizes the contributions of and the challenges faced by African Americans and other minorities.”

The announcement is a direct response to DeSantis’ war on so-called “anti-woke ideology,” which has seen the governor attacking diversity and equity efforts at seemingly every opportunity, including most recently, DEI initiatives at Florida’s state colleges and universities. In issuing its formal travel advisory, the NAACP joined other advocacy groups, including Equality Florida and The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), to warn against visiting the state. 

In the past month alone, DeSantis, who’s expected to officially announce his presidential run this week, has signed off on a flurry of bills attacking everything from abortion rights to health care for trans people. As I’ve previously reported, DeSantis has made it no secret that he plans to make Florida his blueprint for America if he secures the presidency. Should he succeed, perhaps we’ll see more countries issuing travel advisories against the United States, as they did under Donald Trump and the scourge of mass shootings that continue to take place in the US. 

Jeff Kravitz/Getty

This morning, Andrew Yang announced that Krist Novoselic of Nirvana joined Forward—his political party that is “not left,” “not right,” but “FORWARD” (and pretty hard to take seriously).

Yang is famous for running unsuccessfully for president and for mayor of New York City. He has staked his claim on the technocratic, centrist dream that problems can be solved by, as his hat said, “Math.”

Krist Novoselic is famous for being the bassist in Nirvana. (He also played with the band Flipper in the 2000s, an underrated no-wave rock outfit.) There are other things Novoselic has done—including political activism as an independent after breaking away from the Democrat party, and some not-great comments on “law and order”—but if you had to say one thing he’s known for, it’d be: That guy is the bassist in Nirvana.

Pumped to have Krist Novoselic of Nirvana join the #ForwardParty!! https://t.co/1J8GDy38gx

— Andrew Yang🧢⬆️🇺🇸 (@AndrewYang) May 23, 2023

And yet, in the announcement, written by Yang (at least according to the byline), amid a lot of mentions that Novoselic is very tall, is this: “Krist co-founded Nirvana with Kurt Cobain—he’s the tall, good-looking one playing guitar near the back.” (My emphasis added.) Hmm. Guitar? I don’t think you get on a Discogs list of “The Greatest Rock Bassists of All Time” made by anavrin3 playing guitar. You do it by playing bass.

Is this just an elision? Does Andrew Yang mean playing “bass guitar” in the back?

Well, either way, I guess Yang’s claim that Krist Novoselic is the guy playing guitar is fitting in one way. It’s like his claim the Forward is a political party. Technically true. But also: “A denial, a denial, a denial.”

Global Investment Summit. Bill Gates speaks during the Global Investment Summit at the Science Museum, London. Picture date: Tuesday October 19, 2021. See PA story POLITICS Investment. Photo credit should read: Leon Neal/PA Wire URN:63159638 (Press Association via AP Images)Leon Neal/AP Images

The specifics of Bill Gates’ relationship with Jeffrey Epstein have been an open question since details about their ties were revealed in 2019. In 2022, Gates’ ex-wife, Melinda French Gates, revealed that her then-husband’s relationship with the child predator financier even contributed to their divorce. 

On Sunday, the Wall Street Journal shed new light on their dynamic, revealing that Epstein once threatened to reveal Gates’ affair with a Russian bridge player named ​​Mila Antonova.

According to the report, Gates met Antonova in 2010. Three years later, Epstein paid for Antonova’s coding school tuition. Then, four years after that he emailed Gates asking for reimbursement for Antonova’s tuition after Gates declined to put money into a multibillion-dollar charitable fund that Epstein was trying to create at JP Morgan. The implication of the request for reimbursement was that if Gates didn’t maintain a relationship with Epstein, the registered sex offender would reveal the affair. 

Antonova explained to the Journal that Epstein paid for her tuition after declining to invest in a bridge business that she was attempting to start. When she couldn’t raise enough money, she decided to go to a coding boot camp instead and reached out to people she knew to ask for loans. 

“Epstein agreed to pay and he paid directly to the school. Nothing was exchanged. I don’t know why he did that,” she told the paper. “When I asked, he said something like, he was wealthy and wanted to help people when he could.”

A Gates spokesperson told the Journal, “Mr. Gates met with Epstein solely for philanthropic purposes. Having failed repeatedly to draw Mr. Gates beyond these matters, Epstein tried unsuccessfully to leverage a past relationship to threaten Mr. Gates.”

Read the entire Journal story here.

Charlie Neibergall/AP Photo

It sure seems like Ron DeSantis really doesn’t want to talk about abortion, despite his sterling record of restricting it. Just six weeks after passing one of the toughest bans in the country, DeSantis barely brought it up during a speech Saturday evening at the annual gala of the Florida Family Policy Council, an anti-abortion group. 

“We believe that everybody counts, everybody’s special, and our Heartbeat Protection Act shows that we say what we mean and we mean what we say,” DeSantis said of his new abortion restrictions, before quickly returning to his usual talking points about his coronavirus and transphobic policies, according to the New York Times.

Beyond the gala, DeSantis hasn’t spoken much about abortion publicly, only including it once in his regular 45-minute stump speech listing his accomplishments, according to the Times.

As the Florida governor reportedly nears announcing his run for president, he may be caught between the hardened base of GOP supporters who want to end abortion and the public at large, which consistently and overwhelmingly supports abortion rights in public polling.

After DeSantis introduced his latest restrictions, his would-be opponent, Donald Trump, attacked him on it, saying in an interview with The Messenger that “many people within the pro-life movement” think the Florida ban “was too harsh.”

Kiyoshi Ota/AP

After initially pooh-poohing progressives’ push to use the 14th Amendment to go past the debt ceiling, President Joe Biden said on Sunday that he believes he has “the authority” to use it—although he’s not sure the ensuing legal challenge would resolve itself before the United States defaulted on its debt. “The question is,” he told reporters at a press conference at the Group of 7 summit in Japan, “could it be done and invoked in time?”

According to Treasury Department officials, it’s only a matter of weeks before the federal government can’t pay its bills on time, leading to a default. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Sunday that early June is the “hard deadline” for the debt ceiling—potentially as soon as June 1. As Republicans drew lines in the sand on things like cutting domestic public spending and adding work requirements for government assistance programs, frustrated progressives have tried to push Biden to consider using the 14th Amendment to avoid capitulating to the right’s demands and keep borrowing past the debt limit. 

Work requirements frequently create gaps in government welfare programs by helping lock people into a cycle of poverty. People find themselves out of work and needing assistance, are unable to get it, and lack the stability they need to get their next job. Studies show that work requirements don’t increase employment either, suggesting that people don’t have jobs because they might not simply be available, not because they’re lazy. The added administrative work in any requirements adds practice hurdles for struggling people who are already short on time, which writer Annie Lowry has called the “time tax.” Poor children are often collateral damage in these requirements. 

Many progressive lawmakers see the 14th Amendment as a way around these issues. Biden had signaled that he would be open to this but on Friday, Politico reported that the Biden administration had been communicating that it had deep reservations about pursuing the constitutional route. However, based on his comments in Japan, he may be warming to it again.

“It’s time for Republicans to accept that there is no bipartisan deal to be made solely—solely—on their partisan terms,” Biden said in Hiroshima. “They have to move, as well.”

The Washington Post reported that, when asked what would happen if the United States were to default on its national debt, the president shook his head and walked away.

STAR MAX/AP

As we were all reminded during an especially horrendous town hall last week, Donald Trump is not a shy man. His thoughts, much like his policies, tend to flow unvarnished, regardless of how misogynistic, delusional, and contradictory they might be.

But there’s one topic the former president has never seemed to want to offer a real stance on: abortion. That sidestepping strategy carried him in 2016—and it appears as though Trump believes it will work once again, even as political observers and rivals push him to attach a number to his extremist views.

Take a look at how the frontrunner of the Republican Party attempted to thread the needle on one of the most important issues of the presidential election over just the last week:

May 10

As my colleague Abigail Weinberg noted during CNN’s town hall featuring the former president last week, Trump repeatedly deflected questions on a national abortion ban. Even some in the audience seemed confused. “He didn’t actually answer me,” a registered nurse at the event said after asking Trump how he planned to appeal to women concerned after the fall of Roe. “Deals are being made,” Trump said instead. “Deals are going to be made.” 

May 15

A small level of specificity came days later while attacking Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. “If you look at what DeSantis did, a lot of people don’t even know if he knew what he was doing,” Trump told The Messenger. “But he signed six weeks, and many people within the pro-life movement feel that that was too harsh.”

When asked how he personally felt about a six-week ban, however, Trump was characteristically noncommittal. The interview didn’t sit well with DeSantis, who quickly called out Trump for refusing to commit to the issue. “I signed the bill,” DeSantis hit back. “I was proud to do it. [Trump] won’t answer whether he would sign it or not.”

May 17

Perhaps sensing an emerging weakness, Trump let loose with the following:

Donald Trump: "I was able to kill Roe v. Wade."

He takes credit for the abortion bans that have resulted from Dobbs, including 6-week prohibitions. pic.twitter.com/CQODNGqgTb

— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) May 17, 2023

Many things can be evinced from these chaotic remarks: Trump is an idiot in the English language, and he still posts with abandon. But perhaps the most important point is that for Trump, an abortion debate doesn’t even exist. His policies, if you can call it that, have always been reactionary, designed in his brain to please whoever happens to be in the room. As Trump suggested this morning, he doesn’t care about the matter of “6 weeks, 10 weeks, 15 weeks, or whatever.” He correctly asserts that he was a critical player in removing the constitutional right to an abortion—and that should speak for itself.

You could be forgiven for hoping that Trump’s elusiveness the first time around was a sign that maybe he’d be somewhat of a moderate on the issue. But as later evidenced, ambiguity ultimately meant that Trump never cared, and still doesn’t care, about a woman’s right to an abortion. 

Brian Cahn/Zuma

Former President Trump is a twice-impeached sexual abuser, who possesses a unique ability to make people laugh—unfortunately or fortunately, to use his verbiage. He made that clear at a CNN town hall last week, when he had an audience of mostly Republicans laughing hysterically over the charming subject of an alleged rape.

However odious his behavior, Trump’s charisma—or, as the kids call it, “rizz”—is a boon to his presidential prospects. Rizz, like BDE, is not a learnable trait. Either you have it or you don’t. And Trump’s most formidable challenger for the Republican nomination, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, certainly does not.*

A new article in the New York Times analyzed DeSantis’ lackluster start to the presidential race. It said that the Florida governor is choosing to continue using his gubernatorial power to do bad shit rather than ignore his constituents and hit the campaign trail. How noble! But the subtext is that DeSantis is just not an agreeable or pleasant person to be around, and that’s going to hurt him.

The article repeatedly mentions DeSantis’ difficulty making eye contact. We hear from a freshman Republican congressman from Florida who was “a bit insulted” by DeSantis’ failure to return his call. We are told that DeSantis spends donor events fiddling with his phone. He has reportedly responded to criticism and become much more engaged lately—but can it really be that easy to suddenly adopt basic interpersonal communication skills at 44 years of age?

And even if DeSantis can overcome his awkwardness and learn to make small talk, it’s unclear whether he’ll be able to hide his general weirdness once he steps more clearly into the national spotlight. This is a man who reportedly eats pudding with his fingers. He was widely ridiculed for the white rubber boots he wore while surveying damage from Hurricane Ian, and while the pile-on was petty, it pointed to a dunkability and rizzlessness** that don’t lend themselves to a future president. But we’ll just have to wait and see.

*Editor’s note: The etymology for rizz is here. You might as well go ahead and learn it—as it migrates from Twitch to social media writ large to a colleague using it and you going “oh Jesus.” It seems to involve mostly “seduction” but can be used more widely. I thought of the unfortunate slang of my generation: “swag.”

**See above. If you’re old, and think this is a new word. Don’t worry. It’s just rizz again. In a new form.

Our namesake, a mother, Mary Harris Jones.Zinn Education Project

First, liberals canceled Christmas. Then, Thanksgiving. Now, they’re throwing Mother’s Day out with the trash.

At least, that’s how Fox News sees it.

In a recent article, the right-wing site accused “the left” of “trying to erase mothers.” Among the apparent culprits are trans people. “A mother is a woman who by birth or adoption lovingly devotes herself to her child or children,” the article declares. So far, fine—if a bit heavy on the notion that motherhood must involve unyielding devotion. Then, things go off the rails: “Talk about demeaning cultural appropriation, slurs like ‘chest feeders’ or ‘birthing person’ don’t create equality, they just erase unique contributions because no biological man can do what we women do, nurture life within ourselves and nurture life day in and day out in a way that is uniquely feminine.”

It’s unclear to me what the use of gender-neutral language has to do with cultural appropriation. But I find the equation of womanhood with “nurturing life within ourselves” to be particularly offensive. By the writer’s own definition, a woman who adopts a child is a mother. But one sentence later, she suggests that motherhood boils down to our reproductive capabilities—leaving us to wonder where women who are biologically incapable of having children fall into this paradigm. I also reject the notion that nurturing life necessarily falls under any gendered umbrella.

The writer takes particular offense with a “thuggish” Time article that has the audacity to suggest that, amid attacks on abortion rights, motherhood should be desired, not forced. Mother’s Day, according to this notion, is “a day designed to honor a choice for LIFE.” But the key word there isn’t the one in all-caps. It’s “choice.”

Fox News doesn’t mention this on the author page, but the writer isn’t a journalist. It’s Kristi S. Hamrick, who does publicity work for the anti-abortion Students for Life, among other organizations. Previously, she worked for the Family Research Council, a group that promotes “family values” like being against gay marriage. (She hosted their show “Straight Talk with FRC,” she writes in her bio.)

Miracles happen. Roe v Wade can fall. Long shots win the Kentucky derby. Free speech can be restored to social media. Life is beautiful. #Hope https://t.co/yMslMznwth

— Kristi Stone Hamrick (@KristiSHamrick) May 8, 2022

If we want to honor mothers, we might start by bolstering our safety nets for mothers and children. As my colleague Abby Vesoulis reported last year, states with strict anti-abortion laws also tend to have more food insecurity, lower child wellness, and less guaranteed parental leave than other states. “It’s like they want us to have [kids],” one single mother told Abby, “but they are not giving us anything to raise them.”

Motherhood does not need to be predicated on suffering, despite what everything from Fox News to Genesis might have us believe. This Mother’s Day, consider a world where mothers get the help they need—from the family, the community, and, yes, the government—to make the job of childrearing a little bit easier. But that might be too great a stretch of the imagination for a publication that’s flabbergasted by the notion of making sure kids don’t go hungry at school.

This is the guy who is going to talk about politics on Twitter. His name is Tucker Carlson.Chip Somodevilla/Getty

On Tuesday, former Fox News host Tucker Carlson announced that he would be sharing his political views on Twitter—just like the rest of us idiots.

Carlson, who was let go by Fox News a few weeks ago, said he would relaunch his show “soon” on the social media website now run by Elon Musk. It has been reported that he’s violating his noncompete clause to do so, at a cost of $25 million. That’s a hefty fee to tweet. (Carlson also has a blue check, but it’s not clear whether he’s paying Musk’s monthly fee for it.) Axios reported Tucker’s lawyers will argue his contract was breached.

Personally—just between this journalist and a guy who talks at the camera about journalists—I’d have kept the $25 million. In my experience, Twitter consists mostly of other journalists and anime avatars yelling at you about Marvel movies they think are cinema (read: 17-year-olds). It’s not a fun, or interesting, crowd.

It is also not terribly user-friendly for Tucker’s usual demographic: old people. Unless there’s a New Deal–style program to teach the elderly to use the app, I don’t think his show will do as well as it did on Fox. Plus, he’s no longer vying for TV numbers, where a few million is great. Instead, he’s competing against a guy with more than 100 million subscribers whose thing is very nicely bribing people.

Tucker is, as his platform demands, framing his move as a battle for speech. In a front-facing video with an odd aspect ratio, he says Twitter is the “only” big platform that still allows full expression. This is part of a larger dissertation on the gaze of the journalist. There’s not much to it:

We’re back. pic.twitter.com/sG5t9gr60O

— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) May 9, 2023

Tucker sort of fiddles around with lowercasing and capitalizing the word “Truth”—squeezing and stress testing it like an undergraduate wading his way, poorly, through Richard Rorty. I found this relatable. But also, you’re supposed to grow out of it. Every decent journalist knows there are shades and difficulties in conveying the facts. (Janet Malcolm said it stronger, and better, in the New Yorker decades ago.) The fact (sorry) is that most journalists try to say true things. It’s hard.

And I guess the other rule is that you try not to sell out or suck up to powerful people. Maybe consider that, too.

AP /Rebecca Blackwell

On Tuesday, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.) signed a bill banning Chinese nationals from buying land in Florida. He hopes the bill will go toward “counteracting” the “malign influence of the Chinese Communist Party in Florida,” according to a recent press release.

“Today, it’s clear that we don’t want CCP in the Sunshine State,” said DeSantis at a press conference on Monday. “We want to maintain this as a free state of Florida.” 

SB 264 was among several bills signed by DeSantis targeting “communist China.” The new law will prohibit Chinese nationals from buying land unless they are American citizens or permanent residents. The bill also imposes certain restrictions for Chinese citizens—and others, including Russians and Venezuelans—with nontourist visas when it comes to buying land near a military base. 

“We believe that national security is of paramount importance,” wrote the Florida Asian American Justice Alliance in a release after the House State Affairs committee passed the bill in April. “However, the legislative overreach…is both unconstitutional and deeply discriminatory to the AAPI community, equating all Chinese citizens without a Green Card to agents of the Chinese Community Party.” There is concern the law will further facilitate the discrimination of Chinese people and other immigrants, especially those seeking homeownership. 

DeSantis also signed off on two other bills: one restricting government desktops or servers from downloading TikTok, an app owned by a Chinese company; and another prohibiting Florida colleges and universities from engaging in a partnership with schools overseas without governmental approval. These bills are set to go into effect on July 1.