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Jonathan Alter

Jonathan Alter is a columnist for The Daily Beast and an analyst for MSNBC. He worked at Newsweek for 28 years as a senior editor and columnist. His most recent book, The Center Holds: Obama and His Enemies, is now available in paperback.

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TALK IT OUT

Dems Can Save Voting by Restoring the Mr. Smith Filibuster

A reckoning is coming: They don’t want the Senate to fiddle while democracy burns.

Jonathan Alter

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A NEW NEW DEAL

Biden’s First 100 Days Will Be the Biggest Since FDR’s

Even before being sworn in, Biden had devoted a series of speeches to his ambitious plans. When the action begins, it will be a tonic, as it was in 1933.

Jonathan Alter

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CLOSE THE ‘TOUGHNESS GAP’

Democrats Must Punish the House GOP’s ‘Seditious Seventeen’

Of the 126 Republican House members who signed that brief, 17 essentially agreed to invalidate their own votes. So invalidate them.

Jonathan Alter

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IN CASE YOU’D FORGOTTEN…

Today: Remind an Undecided Voter About Trump’s 4 Worst Acts

Public health menace. Dangerous autocrat. Racist demagogue. Incompetent whiner. It’s time to send him home for good.

Jonathan Alter

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EXCERPT

Carter Has Always Been Odd Man Out in the Presidents’ Club

The unspoken rule among former presidents is that they keep silent on the actions of their successors. Carter has never felt bound by this.

Jonathan Alter

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‘ACTION NOW’

It’s Time To Recruit, Train and Supply a COVID Testing Army

If Trump had acted in the winter of 2020 the way FDR did in the winter of 1933, we wouldn’t be in this predicament.

Jonathan Alter

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STICK IT TO HIM

Here’s How to Make Trump Pay for His Deadly Lost Months

Trump needs to be tarred with his lack of preparedness the way “the emails” were stuck to Clinton, “the hostages” to Carter, “the pardon” to Ford, and “Hoovervilles” to Hoover.

Jonathan Alter

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OLD SHOE

What Obama Saw in Biden

With Joe, familiarity breeds not contempt, but respect and even love.

Jonathan Alter

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INSIDE THE 'STARR' CHAMBER

20 Tough Questions Dems Must Force Trump’s Lawyers to Answer

The next phase of this trial: question time. Here are the pointed questions the Democrats ought to ask Starr, Dershowitz, Bondi, and company.

Jonathan Alter

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POPULAR VERDICT

The People Speak: President Trump Is No King

In a very real constitutional sense, the people declared Wednesday that it’s not OK for a president to solicit a foreign power to smear a political rival.

Jonathan Alter

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