Featured
Trump Invokes Kirk’s Killing in Justifying Measures to Silence Opponents. Zolan Kanno-Youngs, Andrew Duehren, Kenneth P. Vogel and Katie Rogers / NYT
“The radical left has done tremendous damage to the country,” President Trump told reporters outside the White House on Tuesday, as he continued to play down violence on the right.
President Trump has begun a major escalation in his long-running efforts to stifle political opposition in the United States, using the assassination of the right-wing activist Charlie Kirk to make the baseless argument that Democratic organizations and protesters are part of a violent conspiracy against conservative values and the American way of life. Read more
Related: Trump’s Threats Darken on Fox News as MAGA Fury Over Kirk Goes Nuclear. By Greg Sargent / TNR
Related: Trump Has Destroyed Any Hope of National Healing. By Jeet Heer / The Nation
Political / Social
White House Plans Broad Crackdown on Liberal Groups. Katie Rogers and Zolan Kanno-Youngs / NYT
Some of the highest-ranking officials in the federal government used Charlie Kirk’s podcast, guest-hosted by Vice President JD Vance, to lay out their plans.
President Trump and his top advisers threatened on Monday to unleash the power of the federal government to punish what they alleged was a left-wing network that funds and incites violence, seizing on Charlie Kirk’s killing to make broad and unsubstantiated claims about their political opponents. Read more
Related: The Kirk Crackdown Is Underway. Thomas B. Edsall / NYT
After Kirk’s Killing, Obama Says the Nation Is in a ‘Political Crisis.’ Tyler Pager / NYT
Former President Barack Obama suggested on Tuesday that President Trump and his allies were using the assassination of the conservative activist Charlie Kirk to stoke division and silence debate about Mr. Kirk’s ideas.
Mr. Obama, speaking in a moderated conversation in Erie, Pa., as part of the Jefferson Educational Society’s 17th annual global summit, did not mention Mr. Trump by name. But he said that Mr. Trump’s attacks in recent days on his political rivals and his threats of drastic actions to stifle his opposition after the killing of Mr. Kirk had exacerbated tensions in the country. Read more
Related: Obama makes an about-face on red and blue America. By Theodore R. Johnson / Wash Post
His Book on Charlie Kirk Was About to Come Out. Then His Subject Was Murdered. By Kiera Butler / Mother Jones
Matthew Boedy reveals Turning Point’s deep connections to a shadowy Christian nationalist movement.
For the past several years, Matthew Boedy, an English professor at the University of North Georgia, has been working on a book about the Christian nationalist aims of the conservative powerhouse group Turning Point USA and its late founder, right-wing influencer Charlie Kirk. In his forthcoming book, The Seven Mountains Mandate: Exposing the Dangerous Plan to Christianize America and Destroy Democracy, Boedy argues that Kirk modeled Turning Point on the seven-mountain mandate, the idea that Christians are called to take over each of seven spheres of influence—from government to education to media and beyond. Read more
Trump’s Economic Magic Trick Is Coming Undone. By Jamelle Bouie / NYT
The essence of President Trump’s pitch to the American people last year was simple: They could have it both ways.
In reality, this was a fantasy. Americans could have a strong, growing economy, which requires immigration to bring in new people and fill demand for labor, or they could finance a deportation force and close the border to everyone but a small, select few. It was a binary choice. Theirs could be an open society or a closed one, but there was no way to get the benefits of the former with the methods of the latter. Read more
Related: Poverty is fueling Trumpism — and there’s a sinister reason why. By Chauncey Devega / Salon
Related: Trump’s takeover of American society is nearly complete. By Charles R. Davis / Salon
Fascism Scholar Sounds Alarm: We’re Now In ‘Next Phase’ Of Trump Authoritarian Playbook. By Lee Moran / HuffPost
Fascism expert Jason Stanley — who left Yale University for Canada earlier this year over fears of the U.S. political climate — has spelled out the authoritarian playbook he believes Donald Trump and his administration are currently following.
It’s “completely playbook,” Stanley said of the rhetoric on Tuesday’s broadcast of “The Weeknight” on MSNBC. “Scholars of authoritarianism have been warning about this for years. Every authoritarian ever waits for an atrocity to happen, a terrorist attack, and they have planned how they’re going to use it.” “They’re going to use it to target the political opposition,” Stanley continued, noting how Miller, the architect of Trump’s extreme anti-immigration agenda, in particular is “now talking about Democrats the way he talks about immigrants.” Read more
How State and Local Republicans Are Disenfranchising Voters to Stay in Power. By Caitlin Scialla / The Progressive Magazine
Miami Mayor Francis Suarez speaking with attendees at the 2023 Turning Point Action Conference in West Palm Beach, Florida, July 2023.
In Miami and Texas, Republicans have recently fought to undermine the will of voters by disregarding term limits and redistricting procedures. Read more
Right-Wing Fanatics Are Weaponizing America’s Anti-Discrimination Agency. By Abby Vesoulis / Mother Jones
How the White House made the EEOC a “grievance apparatus for white, straight, Christian people.”
Experts say the shift is part of a broader trend in which the civil rights–era agency and the anti-discrimination laws it enforces are being weaponized to advance the interests of Trump’s long-standing base. As Karen Ortiz, an EEOC administrative judge who was fired in June, puts it, his administration’s goal is to turn the agency into a “grievance apparatus for white, straight, Christian people.” Read more
House votes to charge D.C. 14-year-olds as adults. By Meagan Flynn / Wash Post
Republicans in Congress are pursuing a wave of new laws aimed at D.C.’s criminal justice system.
House lawmakers voted Tuesday to allow 14-year-olds to be tried as adults for serious crimes and to treat young people more harshly in the D.C. justice system — fulfilling a top request from the Trump administration despite universal opposition among top D.C. elected officials. Read more
Related: Eleanor Holmes Norton should not run for reelection. By Donna Brazile / Wash Post
Georgia DA Fani Willis can’t prosecute Trump after appeal rejected. By Aysha Bagchi, Bart Jansen / USA Today
The ruling leaves in place an appeals court’s finding that Willis can’t continue on the case because her romantic relationship with a special prosecutor created the appearance of impropriety.
The divided Sept. 16 decision comes after Willis appealed to the state’s highest court to allow her to remain on the sprawling election interference case. Willis’ office brought charges against Trump and several other co-defendants, alleging they participated in a conspiracy to overturn former President Joe Biden‘s 2020 election victory, including by replacing the presidential electors for Georgia with Trump supporters. Read more
Appeals court allows Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook to keep her job. By Justin Jouvenal / Wash Post
Cook’s attorneys added in a Saturday filing that allowing Trump’s firing would transform the Fed “from a historically independent institution into an at will body, leaving the nation’s central bank (and its monetary policy) at the mercy of the White House and its political whims.”
The central bank is expected to decide at a meeting Tuesday and Wednesday how much to cut interest rates for the first time this year amid signs of a softening labor market. Read more
Education
Trey Reed’s Death at Delta State Sparks Questions, Vigil. By Aallyhah Wright / Capital B
A Black college student who was found hanging from a tree on his school’s campus in Mississippi was not the victim of foul play law enforcement officials said, countering online speculation that he was the victim of a lynching.
Demartravion “Trey” Reed, a 21-year-old from Grenada, Mississippi, was discovered at Delta State University the morning of Sept. 15. Reed had only attended classes at the university for a month before his death, his family’s attorney, Vanessa Jones, said at a news conference on Tuesday evening. Reed’s family said on Sept. 3 the college student spent time with his loved ones in his hometown, where city officials hosted Grenada Day. They said he had a fun and loving spirit and they now want answers about the circumstances surrounding his death. Read more
Charlie Kirk’s Murder Fuels New Attacks on Higher Education. By Anna Merlan / Mother Jones
In the days following the murder of MAGA influencer Charlie Kirk, his friends and allies have called for revenge against all kinds of groups, including trans people and the so-called radical left, even as the motivations of the alleged shooter, who was reportedly raised in a Republican household, remain far from clear.
Now, some of those same rightwing figures are homing in on another target: colleges and universities, which they blame for radicalizing both the alleged shooter and, more broadly, people they accuse of celebrating Kirk’s death. MAGA activist Laura Loomer has called for defunding universities.In her tweet, Loomer tagged Harmeet Dhillon, an Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights at the Department of Justice, who responded, “I’m on it. And all the other haters at our American funded schools.” Read more
Related: Why Charlie Kirk chose to talk with young people at universities. Independent
Trump Redirects Millions to Historically Black Colleges, Charter Schools. Sarah Mervosh and Michael C. Bender / NYT
The Trump administration is cutting money from programs that have supported minority students, including at other universities. Howard University
To pay for the changes, the administration cut money from other parts of the education budget. The biggest cut, announced by the department last week, is a $350 million hit to programs that support minority students in science and engineering programs, schools with significant Hispanic enrollment, and other federal grants at minority-serving institutions. The administration also cut money from gifted and talented programs, which it said use racial targeting in recruitment in some cases, and from magnet schools, which have been used as a tool for combating school segregation. Read more
Here are the details of Trump’s $1.2-billion call to remake UCLA in a conservative image. By Jaweed Kaleem / LA Times
The Trump administration’s settlement proposal to UCLA — which includes a nearly $1.2-billion fine over allegations of antisemitism and civil rights violations — seeks to drastically overhaul campus practices on hiring, admissions, sports, scholarships, discrimination and gender identity, a Times review of the document shows.
The 28-page letter — whose full contents have not been made public — also lays out in sweeping detail how it wants the university to enforce new policies that adhere to the president’s conservative agenda. Read more
Related: University of California Leaders to Meet as Trump Increases Pressure. Alan Blinder / NYT
World
Will the US Continue to Aid, Abet, and Arm Genocide in Gaza? By Katrina Vanden Heuvel / The Nation
The United States is aiding and abetting genocide in Gaza. This horror has the support —like so many of our most disastrous foreign debacles from Vietnam to Iraq—of both political parties.
As more and more children die of starvation and the famine deepens, as the Netanyahu government begins its attack on Gaza City, moving to occupy all of Gaza, as Israeli soldiers and bulldozers systematically level city after city in Gaza, the criminal horror is reaching its obscene goal: the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from Gaza (and, if Netanyahu’s ministers have their way, all of the occupied West Bank). Read more
Related: U.N. commission finds that Israel committed genocide in Gaza. By Sammy Westfall / Wash Post
Related: Netanyahu and an Israel Without Restraint. Roger Cohen / NYT
Trump has fanned the flames of divisive politics around the world, says Sadiq Khan. By Peter Walker / The Guardian
Donald Trump has arrived in the UK on Tuesday night to a barrage of criticism from Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, who has accused the US president of doing more than anyone else to encourage the intolerant far right across the globe.
In what will be considered to be a direct challenge to Keir Starmer’s government to take a more robust stance towards Trump, Khan said the president’s use of the military in cities and targeting of minorities was “straight out of the autocrat’s playbook”. Read more
Related: Trump attacks wokeness — and betrays his own voters. By Chauncey Devega / Salon
Related: Trump expands ‘third country’ deportation policy to Ghana. By Sammy Westfall / Wash Post
TB deaths projected to rise due to aid cuts, study says. By Jonathan Lambert / NPR
“As long as you breathe, you are at risk anywhere in the world,” says physician Lucica Ditiu.
The risk she’s referring to is catching tuberculosis. While it may seem like a disease from the past, this airborne illness kills more people than any other infectious disease worldwide, roughly 1.2 million a year. That number could increase dramatically because of the Trump administration’s cuts to foreign assistance, according to a new study co-authored by Ditiu. As many as 10 million additional people could get TB, and 2.2 million could die by 2030 in high-burden countries under the worst-case funding scenario over the next five years, researchers report in the journal PLOS Global Public Health. Read more
Ethics / Morality / Religion
Virginia Pastor’s sermon on Charlie Kirk’s death sparks debate. By Katie Lusso / WUSA9
A passionate sermon delivered by a pastor at an Alexandria church on Sunday is now drawing national attention and sparking a wide range of reactions. Rev. Dr. Howard-John Wesley is the senior pastor at Alfred Street Baptist Church in Alexandria.
“I am overwhelmed,” he said repeatedly throughout his sermon. “I’m overwhelmed by folks who call themselves Christian, simply because they invoked the name of Jesus and quote scripture from the Old Testament,” he said. The clip, posted to social media, ends with Wesley saying, “I am sorry, but there’s nowhere in the Bible where we are taught to honor evil. How you die does not redeem how you lived. You do not become a hero in your death when you were a weapon of the enemy in your life.” Read more and listen here
Bishop William Barber Condemns Charlie Kirk Murder and the Right’s Religious Nationalism. By Amy Goodman / Democracy Now
We speak to Bishop William J. Barber II about conservative Christian activist Charlie Kirk’s killing and the right-wing weaponization of his death.
Barber says outrage over political violence should also extend beyond Kirk’s assassination, to what he refers to as the political violence of policy, including the hundreds around the world who die of poverty, war and disease every day. “You cannot claim that you believe in a God and a Christ of love and justice and mercy and grace and truth, and then you push policies that prey on the very persons, in the very communities, that the Scriptures, that the example of Jesus and the prophet, tells us we should not only pray for, but we should also be lifting up and helping up and protecting.” Read more and listen here
NEH grant to fight antisemitism is largest ever, signaling Trump-era shift. By Janay Kingsberry / Wash Post
The humanities endowment awarded $10.4 million to Tikvah’s Jewish Civilization Project, saying it will combat antisemitism, as the agency cuts the overall number of grants.
The funding will support Tikvah’s “Jewish Civilization Project,” a three-year project to examine Jewish history and fight antisemitism in America through educational and public programs, according to the agency’s news release. Read more
National Baptists and partners commit to social justice advocacy at annual session. By Adelle M. Banks / RNS
In his closing remarks at the National Baptist Convention USA’s annual session, its new president recounted the connections the historically Black denomination is forming with other organizations to forward its support for Black communities and social justice issues.
Kimber also announced that the NBCUSA, with 31,000 churches and 7.5 million members, has launched a coalition with leaders of three other historically Black denominations, including the Church of God in Christ, the National Baptist Convention of America and the National Missionary Baptist Convention of America, that “stands as a moral voice in the public square, particularly in response to the troubling national retreat from diversity, equity and inclusion.” Read more
Historical / Cultural
So You Want a Civil War? Let’s Pause to Remember What One Looks Like. By David Blight / TNR
Today marks the 163rd anniversary of Antietam. Those who say they’re ready for civil war should stop and think about what happened there.
In the wake of the murder of Charlie Kirk, Republican elected officials and members of the Trump administration have led or followed denizens of right-wing social media in using the language of “civil war” to respond to what they immediately deemed an attack by the “radical left.” A little history could help us all. Those feeling some sort of primordial urge for civil war at this moment in our bitterly divided politics, on the right or the left, should carefully learn about a battle fought on this day, September 17, 1862, in our real Civil War. Read more
Related: Political violence in America is an endless scroll. By Colbert I. King / Wash Post
Trump Admin Orders Removal Of Notable Photo Of Formerly Enslaved Man From National Park. By Ben Glanchet / HuffPost
President Donald Trump’s administration has ordered the National Park Service to remove multiple exhibits, signs and materials linked to slavery from its sites, including a photograph of a formerly enslaved man with scars on his back that became a defining image of the Civil War era, according to multiple outlets.
The move follows a Trump executive order from March that directed the Department of the Interior to ensure national parks don’t contain content that “inappropriately disparage Americans past or living” in a push to focus on the country’s “greatness” instead. Read more
Related: Erasing this indelible image of slavery is a terrifying idea. By Philip Kennicott / Wash Post
Related: Trump Wants to Bury Slavery. My Family Went South to Unearth It. By Jesse Hagopian / Truthout
National Center for Civil and Human Rights expands at a critical moment. By Errol Burnett / CBS News
A popular historical museum in Georgia is expanding at a critical moment in the debate over how the story of the United States is told. Critics of the Trump administration say it is using its power over publicly-funded bodies such as the Smithsonian Institution to control what Americans learn about their history, but the privately funded Atlanta-based National Center for Civil and Human Rights can avoid such pressures and set its own agenda.
It has undergone a months-long renovation, costing nearly $60 million, adding six new galleries as well as classrooms and interactive experiences, changing a relatively static museum into a dynamic place where people are encouraged to take action in support of civil and human rights, racial justice and the future of democracy, said Jill Savitt, the center’s president and CEO. Read more
5 Little Girls And The 16th Street Baptist Church Bombing. By Anoa Changa / Newsone
Monday marks the 62nd anniversary of the 1963 bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church, an event that would become one of several turning points in the Civil Rights Movement, exposing the violent backlash to thriving Black communities. As we pause to remember the four little girls killed in the bombing, it’s important to also honor survivor Sarah Collins Rudolph.
The imagery of four little girls killed in a racist attack on a place of worship has long been a somber point of reflection. But the strength and resilience of those who survived is equally important. Read more
Congress moves to counter Hegseth on base names that evoke Confederacy. By Noah Robertson / Wash Post
Congress is inching toward a bipartisan agreement to reverse the Trump administration’s recent renaming of several Army bases across the southern United States that had long been politically controversial for honoring Confederate leaders.
Tucked within the National Defense Authorization Act passed by the Republican-led House last week is a measure that, if adopted by the Senate, would block Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s reversal of a separate base-renaming effort that was directed by Congress five years ago. Read more
Sports
Charlie Kirk tributes run contrary to sports’ uniting power. By Nancy Armour / USA Today
With their moments of silence for Charlie Kirk, the NFL, NASCAR, New York Yankees, Chicago Cubs and some college football teams chose to glorify someone whose career was built on driving this country apart.
Kirk’s killing last week was appalling, the latest incident in this country’s mind-numbing spiral of violence. His death was particularly devastating for his conservative followers. But that is not a reason to whitewash the hate, misinformation and brand of Christianity that were the foundation of Kirk’s influence, or to show him the respect he so rarely showed others. Read more
Fifty Years After History’s Most Brutal Boxing Match. By Vann R. Newkirk II / The Atlantic
The Thrilla in Manila nearly killed Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier.
This was the third bout between Frazier and Ali. Held on October 1, 1975, in the Philippine Coliseum, the fight is remembered by many who attended as the best heavyweight contest in history, and possibly the pinnacle of the sport. The match was the first ever broadcast live overseas by satellite, and hundreds of millions of people watched from abroad. Read more
The WNBA Superstar Who Left the Game in Her Prime. By Jemele Hill / The Atlantic
Maya Moore walked away from basketball to focus on social-justice activism. Was it worth it?
When she left the league in 2019 after just eight seasons to focus on social-justice activism—which included working to overturn the conviction of an inmate whom she would then marry—fans wondered how much more damage she would have done to the record books if she had continued to play. Would she now be considered the greatest women’s player of all time? Read more
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