Trump Will Stage an Emergency to Ban Jack Smith’s Book Report
We will have a battle this week as Donald Trump’s lawyers try to prevent Jack Smith from filing the brief that Tanya Chutkan ordered him to file.
Author Archive for: emptywheel
About emptywheel
Marcy Wheeler is an independent journalist writing about national security and civil liberties. She writes as emptywheel at her eponymous blog, publishes at outlets including Vice, Motherboard, the Nation, the Atlantic, Al Jazeera, and appears frequently on television and radio. She is the author of Anatomy of Deceit, a primer on the CIA leak investigation, and liveblogged the Scooter Libby trial.
Marcy has a PhD from the University of Michigan, where she researched the “feuilleton,” a short conversational newspaper form that has proven important in times of heightened censorship. Before and after her time in academics, Marcy provided documentation consulting for corporations in the auto, tech, and energy industries. She lives with her spouse in Grand Rapids, MI.
Entries by emptywheel
Fridays with Nicole Sandler
/18 Comments/in 2024 Presidential Election/by emptywheelListen on Spotify (transcripts available) Listen on Apple (transcripts available)
Permission Structures and Polling Puzzles
/167 Comments/in 2024 Presidential Election, emptywheel/by emptywheelTrump has 7% of his campaign left, and he’s spending much of his time outside of swing states, attempting to create stunts to shift the media narrative. Harris has 44% of her campaign left, and she’s spending it, partly, out of the limelight, working relentlessly to win over voters in the swing states that will decide the election.
Useful Idiot Networks, Now Featuring Elon Musk and Don Jr.
/56 Comments/in 2016 Presidential Election, 2024 Presidential Election/by emptywheelThe thing about online networks of right wing influencers like Tim Pool or Don Jr is they offer a cascade effect. You pay off or persuade one or six key useful idiots and the entire network becomes your useful idiot.
JD Vance Makes Light of Actual Foreign Interference in His State
/119 Comments/in 2024 Presidential Election/by emptywheelJD Vance called the bomb threats launched from a presumably hostile foreign country that are having serious consequences to Springfield, Ohio disinformation, downplaying an attack from a foreign country in favor of continuing to lie about legal immigrants to Ohio.
The Concerning Paragraph in the Ryan Routh Complaint
/114 Comments/in 2024 Presidential Election/by emptywheelProbably, Ryan Routh, the man suspected of attempting to assassinate Donald Trump, is just a mentally imbalanced man searching for meaning. But it’s too soon to rule out that someone, including Iran, recruited him.
How Kamala Harris Dodged the Two Truths Problem
/128 Comments/in 2024 Presidential Election/by emptywheelRather than directly contesting Donald Trump’s false claims at the debate, a contest that would persuade none of his followers, Kamala Harris instead demonstrated that the “truth” he offers them is built on a foundation of weakness.
Ball of Thread: The Mueller Investigation
/12 Comments/in Mueller Probe/by emptywheelIn our Mueller investigation podcast, I explain to LOLGOP my belief that Volume II of the report was an impeachment referral designed to permit further investigation that Trump couldn’t destroy with pardons. It didn’t work out that way.
The Laura Loomer Problem Is the Same as the Vladimir Putin Problem
/138 Comments/in 2016 Presidential Election, 2024 Presidential Election/by emptywheelTrump’s anonymous aides, complaining about Laura Loomer’s access to the former President, are making the very same argument that Tim Walz warned about. Trump’s narcissism and his ego make him vulnerable to any person willing to use flattery to win their objectives.
Fridays with Nicole Sandler
/30 Comments/in 2024 Presidential Election/by emptywheelWe talked — a lot — about the debate.