How DC remade Sarah Huckabee Sanders
To her supporters, Sarah Huckabee Sanders played the outsider in Washington during her time as former President Donald Trump’s press secretary — a MAGA champion who couldn’t be corrupted by the establishment swamp. But now that she’s returned home as the governor of Arkansas, independents, traditional Republicans and even former allies of her father are beginning to suspect that she brought some of Washington back with her. Cruising between events in a black SUV with tinted windows, she barely takes questions from the press, preferring to address her national audience via X, Instagram or Fox News. Arkansas doesn’t share a border with Mexico, but that doesn’t stop her from opining on the border crisis on Fox & Friends. And despite Arkansas allowing gender-neutral IDs for a long time, she jumped on the national GOP’s anti-trans culture war to ban them. “Sanders sees the concerns of Arkansans as the same as America’s, and her actions delight many Arkansans,” writes Dana Liebelson in this week’s Friday Read. “Yet there are rumblings — angry educators, cowed Republicans, a falling approval rating, the sense that Sanders is auditioning for a bigger role.” Read the story.“On April 23, you went on TikTok and called me a ‘crying little shit,’ didn’t you?” Can you guess who said this to Michael Cohen this week? Scroll to the bottom for the answer.**DC Interns Are Going Extinct … April brings cherry blossom blooms to Washington, and May brings fresh-faced interns. Or it used to. Thanks to the capital’s slow return to work post-pandemic and developments designed to make internships more equitable — like actually paying interns — the number of positions available is shrinking. Michael Schaffer explores the supply-side internship problem in this week’s Capital City column.President Joe Biden and Trump agreed this week to participate in two televised debates. The agreement came together quickly, followed by spin from both camps that they’d got one over on the other. But will a couple of sparring matches actually make a difference? Here are some pointers to get through the weekend if you weren’t following the debate about the debates. (From David Siders) Don’t let the naysayers tell you debates won’t matter. Remind them that polling shows Americans are deeply concerned about Biden’s age, and Trump is no spring chicken, either. These debates will be a chance for voters to gauge their stamina and fitness under pressure. Show your political savvy by expressing interest in a VP debate, which may also be coming together — Kamala Harris has already agreed to it. Given Biden and Trump’s advanced ages, and the fact that neither could serve another term if they win, a VP debate would be more important than ever. When pundits complain about abandoning the nonpartisan Commission on Presidential Debates, remind them it’s only been organizing presidential debates since 1988 — 15 years after Biden first became a senator. It’d be naïve to suggest that the debates will be entirely substantive. But before your friends dismiss it as a political WWE match, remind them that this year’s debates wouldn’t include live audiences. The candidates won’t be able to play for cheers. What Happens If They Tie? … Two hundred years ago, the presidential election resulted in an Electoral College stalemate, invoking the Twelfth Amendment and throwing the decision to the House. When it picked John Quincy Adams over popular vote-winner Andrew Jackson, it prompted a massive populist backlash that rewrote American politics. And according to historian Joshua Zeitz, what happened in 1824 could happen again in 2024.Much like the rest of the country (and one presidential candidate in particular), editorial cartoonist Matt Wuerker has worms on the brain.**Who Dissed answer: It was Trump’s lead attorney, Todd Blanche, poking at Cohen’s TikTok commentary. The prosecution objected, but not before Cohen responded, “That sounds like something I would say.” politicoweekend@email.politico.com
To her supporters, Sarah Huckabee Sanders played the outsider in Washington during her time as former President Donald Trump’s press secretary — a MAGA champion who couldn’t be corrupted by the establishment swamp. But now that she’s returned home as the governor of Arkansas, independents, traditional Republicans and even former allies of her father are beginning to suspect that she brought some of Washington back with her.
Cruising between events in a black SUV with tinted windows, she barely takes questions from the press, preferring to address her national audience via X, Instagram or Fox News. Arkansas doesn’t share a border with Mexico, but that doesn’t stop her from opining on the border crisis on Fox & Friends. And despite Arkansas allowing gender-neutral IDs for a long time, she jumped on the national GOP’s anti-trans culture war to ban them.
“Sanders sees the concerns of Arkansans as the same as America’s, and her actions delight many Arkansans,” writes Dana Liebelson in this week’s Friday Read. “Yet there are rumblings — angry educators, cowed Republicans, a falling approval rating, the sense that Sanders is auditioning for a bigger role.”
“On April 23, you went on TikTok and called me a ‘crying little shit,’ didn’t you?”
Can you guess who said this to Michael Cohen this week? Scroll to the bottom for the answer.**
DC Interns Are Going Extinct … April brings cherry blossom blooms to Washington, and May brings fresh-faced interns. Or it used to. Thanks to the capital’s slow return to work post-pandemic and developments designed to make internships more equitable — like actually paying interns — the number of positions available is shrinking. Michael Schaffer explores the supply-side internship problem in this week’s Capital City column.
President Joe Biden and Trump agreed this week to participate in two televised debates. The agreement came together quickly, followed by spin from both camps that they’d got one over on the other. But will a couple of sparring matches actually make a difference? Here are some pointers to get through the weekend if you weren’t following the debate about the debates. (From David Siders)
- Don’t let the naysayers tell you debates won’t matter. Remind them that polling shows Americans are deeply concerned about Biden’s age, and Trump is no spring chicken, either. These debates will be a chance for voters to gauge their stamina and fitness under pressure.
- Show your political savvy by expressing interest in a VP debate, which may also be coming together — Kamala Harris has already agreed to it. Given Biden and Trump’s advanced ages, and the fact that neither could serve another term if they win, a VP debate would be more important than ever.
- When pundits complain about abandoning the nonpartisan Commission on Presidential Debates, remind them it’s only been organizing presidential debates since 1988 — 15 years after Biden first became a senator.
- It’d be naïve to suggest that the debates will be entirely substantive. But before your friends dismiss it as a political WWE match, remind them that this year’s debates wouldn’t include live audiences. The candidates won’t be able to play for cheers.
What Happens If They Tie? … Two hundred years ago, the presidential election resulted in an Electoral College stalemate, invoking the Twelfth Amendment and throwing the decision to the House. When it picked John Quincy Adams over popular vote-winner Andrew Jackson, it prompted a massive populist backlash that rewrote American politics. And according to historian Joshua Zeitz, what happened in 1824 could happen again in 2024.
Much like the rest of the country (and one presidential candidate in particular), editorial cartoonist Matt Wuerker has worms on the brain.
**Who Dissed answer: It was Trump’s lead attorney, Todd Blanche, poking at Cohen’s TikTok commentary. The prosecution objected, but not before Cohen responded, “That sounds like something I would say.”
