Tangle

On Sunday, President Joe Biden announced that he had issued a  full and unconditional pardon  of his son, Hunter, for any criminal acts between January 1, 2014 and December 1, 2024. The younger Biden was  convicted  earlier this year on felony gun charges and  pleaded guilty  to felony tax offenses; he was  set to appear  at sentencing hearings for those cas...

Here at Tangle, we’ve just had a year straight of one of the longest, wildest, most unpredictable, campaign seasons I've ever witnessed. From two assassination attempts on Donald Trump to the shocking first debate to Joe Biden dropping out to Kamala Harris's coronation as top Democrat and everything that happened after that and in between. If you are reading this newsletter, you are either a vorac...

On Friday, President-elect Donald Trump  named  Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer (R-OR) as his nominee for Labor secretary. Chavez-DeRemer, who narrowly lost her bid for re-election to the House, is considered one of the most pro-union Republicans in Congress, and her nomination serves as another signal that the GOP’s historically adversarial stance toward unions may be changing. Ad-free podcast...

Last Monday, Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC)  introduced a resolution  requiring Members, officers, and employees of the House of Representatives to use bathrooms corresponding to their biological sex at the Capitol and in House office buildings. Then, on Wednesday, Mace  released  the text of a bill that would establish the same rule for all individuals in federal buildings. Mace ...

Please enjoy this fully unlocked preview episode of our Sunday podcast. These editions are normally available exclusively for premium podcast members. To become a member, please go to tanglemedia.supercast.com and sign up. On today's episode, Managing Editor Ari Weitzman takes on lead hosting duties while Isaac is away and invites on the Tangle team. Will Kaback, Magdalena Bowoka, and Jon Lall joi...

This week, editor Will Kaback sat down with  Dave O’Brien , the policy director for RepresentUs, to ask him some of the questions our readers always ask us about money in politics — how it works, how it’s changed, and what can be done to stop it. The conversation touched on how wealthy individuals like Elon Musk impacted the election, the ballot initiatives on campaign finance reform that Rep...

On Wednesday, a bipartisan House ethics panel investigating sexual misconduct claims against former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL)  voted not to release  its report. The panel was scheduled to meet last week to discuss making the report public but changed course after Gaetz resigned from Congress following President-elect Trump announcing him as his pick for attorney general. The Ethics Committe...

On Monday, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court  ruled 4-3  that undated or misdated mail ballots should not be counted in the 2024 election, reaffirming a prior decision and hampering Sen. Bob Casey’s (D) efforts to challenge the results of his race with Dave McCormick (R).  The Associated Press  and  other outlets  have called the race for McCormick, and he  attended...

On Sunday, President Joe Biden  authorized  Ukraine to use U.S.-supplied long-range weaponry — called Army Tactical Missile Systems, or ATACMS — to strike within Russian territory. Then on Tuesday morning, Ukraine used the ATACMS for the first time, reportedly  striking  a Russian arsenal in the Bryansk region 70 miles from the Ukrainian border. Additionally, the Pentagon ...

On Thursday, President-elect Donald Trump  announced  he would nominate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Kennedy, who ended his independent bid for president in August and  endorsed Trump , is a longtime environmental and public health activist whose views on vaccines and other healthcare issues have run counter to the medical establis...

On today's episode, Isaac and Ari discuss the recent political appointments made by President Trump, particularly on the controversial nomination of Matt Gaetz for Attorney General. They explore the implications of these nominations, the political strategies behind them, and the reactions from various political commentators. They also talk about military spending and the potential consequence...

More than a week has now passed since Election Day, and before we fully pivot to focusing on the end of Biden's presidency, the current Supreme Court term, the new Congress, Trump’s appointees and the incoming administration, I think it's important to give one (potentially final) breakdown of the election we just had. I will discuss this in four parts: How should we accurately describe the results...

On Sunday, President-elect Donald Trump  tweeted  that any Republican senator hoping to obtain the position of majority leader would have to approve of recess appointments for his cabinet nominees. Typically, nominees for Cabinet positions, executive offices, or high-level ambassadorships undergo a hearing where they are asked questions by members of the Senate who then vote on whether t...

In the week after the election, President-elect Donald Trump  reaffirmed his campaign promise  to deport millions of immigrants living in the United States illegally. He has also started identifying high-ranking immigration officials to carry out the policy. Ad-free podcasts are here! Many listeners have been asking for an ad-free version of this podcast that they could subscribe to — an...

In the week since his electoral victory, President-elect Trump has begun announcing his picks for his cabinet and key White House staff. These selections offer the first glimpse of the president-elect’s governing priorities and the leaders who will work to enact his agenda.  Ad-free podcasts are here! Many listeners have been asking for an ad-free version of this podcast that they could subsc...

In the madness of election week, we forgot to note that we are off for Veteran's Day today. As longtime readers and listeners know, the Tangle team observes all federal bank holidays, and also takes a couple "recesses" throughout the year around major holidays and congressional breaks (if Congress can take recesses, why can’t we as news reporters and consumers?). While we are off today, we still w...

Isaac conducts an intriguing interview with Ken Block, who was hired by the Trump campaign shortly after the 2020 election to investigate the allegations of voter fraud. Ad-free podcasts and the full episode of today's podcast are here! Many listeners have been asking for an ad-free version of this podcast that they could subscribe to — and we finally launched it . You can go to tanglemedia.superc...

At 4:00 pm ET on Wednesday, Vice President Kamala Harris  addressed  a crowd of supporters at her alma mater of Howard University in Washington, D.C., to concede the election to President-elect Donald Trump. Harris  said that  she called to congratulate Trump on the victory and would help aid his administration’s transition but urged attendees to keep fighting for the issues th...

Former President Donald Trump will become the 47th president of the United States, with  all   major   news outlets   calling  the race in his favor as of Wednesday morning. Trump is poised for a sweep of all seven swing states — Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin — and holds a  51%–47.5% lead  in the popular vote with...

First, and most importantly, we want to let you all know that we'll be covering the election  live from Tangle HQ  in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. We're hosting an election watch party (a  handful of tickets are still available ) and I'll be doing live interviews with guests all night. In order to tune in, you can go to  our YouTube channel  right now, subscribe, and turn o...

Over the weekend, several respected pollsters released their final surveys of the 2024 election, offering a snapshot of the presidential race in its last days. Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump have been locked in a close contest since Harris replaced President Joe Biden as the Democratic nominee, and the latest polls show the candidates remain neck and neck on the eve...

Isaac and Ari share their thoughts about potential election night results, the potential we are in a red bubble, play some game, and talk with editor Will Kaback and executive producer Jon Lall. And as always, the Airing of Grievances. Ad-free podcasts are here! For the last few years, our daily podcast has been ad-supported. In that time, we’ve gotten complaints from our listeners saying they fin...

With the election just days away, we questioned our undecideds about some of the comments they have individually made throughout the series, probed further into those statements, and ultimately discovered if they have made a decision on how they are voting. You can ⁠⁠⁠ subscribe to Tangle by clicking here⁠⁠⁠  or drop something ⁠⁠⁠ in our tip jar by clicking here.⁠⁠⁠ The Undecideds is a Tangle...

A couple weeks ago, I made  my final predictions  about the 2024 election.  In that post, one of my headline predictions was that Vice President Kamala Harris would win Pennsylvania but lose the election. I also argued that Trump had a path to winning in Michigan, that Democrats would win the House, and that Republicans would come away with 53 seats in the Senate. Since then, the ra...

On Tuesday, Vice President Kamala Harris  delivered a speech  at the Ellipse in Washington, D.C., that was billed as the closing argument of her campaign. Harris delivered the speech at the same site as former President Donald Trump’s address to his supporters on January 6, 2021, which preceded their march to the U.S. Capitol. Harris’s campaign chair, Jen O'Malley Dillon,  said &nbs...