Shining a Light

November 10, 2026Democrats will remain in the minority until January, but are already putting forward measures to address affordability and accountability, A group of Democratic senators are asking that implementation of Medicaid work requirements be postponed, They are asking for financial reforms and plan to push back against bad actors in the financial industry and in crypto ventures, Trump is claiming he had not heard about the relationship between the CEO of Nvidia and a Chinese spy, although intelligence had been shared with him, Kentucky Sen Thomas Massie filed eight articles of impeachment against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Hegseth claimed the impeachment effort was political and noted that everything he did was "ordered by the commander in chief,” CNN reports that “multiple” whistleblowers have warned that administration officials are destroying records, Trump’s elevation of Stephen Miller to WH chief of staff will amplify Trump’s impulses, Attorney General Todd Blanche doubled down on the idea that he would consider prosecuting Democrats for saying they plan to enforce accountability, House Republicans elected Rep Jim Jordan of Ohio to lead their conference, Republicans demonstrated their loyalty to Trump by voting to end Massie's impeachment measure, Hearings that will be held when the Democrats take control of Congress will expose the details of Hegseth’s tenure at the Defense Department.To read this letter, click here:Listen on Apple PodcastsListen on SpotifyYou can also find Heather at:YouTubeBlueskyInstagramFacebookThreadsTikTok Get full access to Letters from an American at heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/subscribe

November 8, 2026Trump's posts suggest that any plans to investigate the administration are crimes, Congressional Democrats are hiring former career prosecutors to join the investigative staffs of committees, After the Civil War, General Ulysses S. Grant allowed Confederate soldiers to go home, a humanitarian gesture that was also practical, Northerners believed that it was the political leaders who should be punished, But President Andrew Johnson pardoned many those leaders, who would not face accountability for their attack on the US, They claimed Grant’s clemency was proof that the Confederate ideology was right all along, Racism and rebellion carried forward for more than a century, The same partisan reworking of history took place after Gerald Ford pardoned Richard Nixon after Watergate, Nixon never accepted responsibility, saying “When the president does it, that means that it is not illegal,” During Ronald Reagan’s administration, the theory of the “unitary executive” took this further, It claimed that neither Congress nor the courts could check the president, While serving as head of the Office of Legal Counsel for President George H.W. Bush, William Barr, who later was the attorney general in Trump’s first administration, warned of “legislative encroachments” on the president’s authority, In Trump v United States, the Supreme Court ruled that "a president has absolute immunity from criminal prosecution" for actions deemed part of his official responsibilities, Now, with the prospect of investigations into behavior that might fall outside his official duties, Trump is arguing that enforcing the rule of law is a partisan attack, It is the opposite, and is the fundamental rule under which the American government was conceived. To read this letter, click here:Listen on Apple PodcastsListen on SpotifyYou can also find Heather at:YouTubeBlueskyInstagramFacebookThreadsTikTok Get full access to Letters from an American at heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/subscribe

November 7, 2026Senator-elect James Talarico of Texas gave a victory speech that recalled an era when Americans worked together to defend their country against those who would take its wealth and power for themselves, He leaned into his own religious faith, his history as a middle-school teacher and as the son of a single mother, telling the crowd that his life has taught him to always bet on the underdog, And in Texas against all odds, his movement took their power back, He said, “this win is for every underdog who’s been counted out and left behind…and for every Texan who’s ever wondered if anyone is listening.,” He went on to say that “the billionaires who  … own the politicians fighting on our screens … want us focused on how we’re different instead of on how we’re the same,” He continued, “… tonight we sent a crystal clear message to the people at the top. We will not be conquered,” Explaining how Democrats had won Texas, he said, “the world changes person to person, neighbor to neighbor,”  And he said, “We won this race because people who are desperate for change now are going to get change…. a new politics is being born through each of us,”  Talarico, who won his race by an astonishing 12 points, identified the threat that this new politics poses to establishment politics, especially MAGA, Trump highlighted his need for division and hatred, offering the job of White House press secretary to the CEO of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, whom Trump described as a “violent fighter and warrior.”To read this letter, click here:Listen on Apple PodcastsListen on SpotifyYou can also find Heather at:YouTubeBlueskyInstagramFacebookThreadsTikTok Get full access to Letters from an American at heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/subscribe

November 6, 2026On Tuesday, Americans rejected the Trump administration,  They voted to end corruption, end Trump’s war on Iran, end costly tariffs, and end masked agents kidnapping Black and Brown people off the streets, They voted for a country based on the rule of law, and for the multicultural country mocked by Trump and his loyalists, Hispanic voters swung back toward the Democrats, Black voters turned out in unusually high nmbers, voting for Democrats at higher rates than in 2024, Trump initially appeared dazed by the rebuke, but he woke up, ousting Susie Wiles as chief of staff and replacing her with Stephen Miller, Miller, a fervent white nationalist, has been a powerful force in the White House, Miller hsa been central to undermining disability rights, Miller is also a supporter of Russia and its war against Ukraine, Elevating Miller signals that Trump doesn’t care what Americans want, and a warning to Repubicans to stay in line.To read this letter, click here:Listen on Apple PodcastsListen on SpotifyYou can also find Heather at:YouTubeBlueskyInstagramFacebookThreadsTikTok Get full access to Letters from an American at heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/subscribe

November 5, 2026House Democrats plan to shine a light on Trump’s corruption and renew American government to serve the common good, Rep. Jamie Raskin is the incoming chair of the House Judiciary Committee and he plans to use subpoenas and investigations to learn more about Trump’s coercion of law firms, about Todd Blanche’s refusal to produce documents required by the Epstein Files Transparency Act, and about the DOJ’s persecution of Trump’s perceived enemies, The House Oversight and Reform Committee will focus on the “Trump crime family,” as well as abuses of ICE, The House Finance Committee intends to dg into JP Morgan’s relationship with Epstein, The Democrats also plan to look into the finances behind Trump’s presidential library, Trump appears focused on his legacy, as he pushes to build the arch and takes steps to prevent future changes to the Oval office, MAGA is blaming the election results on the Iran war, but polls indicate that concerns about corruption were foremost for voters, Rep. Thomas Massie plans to force a vote on the Epstein Files Transparency Act when Congress returns next week, Massie also plans to force a vote to impeach Pete Hegseth, The election made it clear that Americans do not want more data centers, Tech firms lost billions of dollars in market value because of concerns about the industry, Voters in Montana approved a ballot initiative to stop the flow of corporate money into political campaigns, with more than 65% supporting the measure.To read this letter, click here:Listen on Apple PodcastsListen on SpotifyYou can also find Heather at:YouTubeBlueskyInstagramFacebookThreadsTikTok Get full access to Letters from an American at heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/subscribe

November 4, 2026Voters flipped control of both chambers of Congress from the Republicans to the Democrats, A Democratic victory in the House was expected, but in the Senate the outcome was unclear, In the Senate, Democrats flipped seven seats, and the race in Alaska has not been called yet, Even more eye-popping, in another uncalled race, Democratic Senate candidate Scott Colom is ahead of the Republican incumbent in Mississippi, If he wins he will be the first Black senator from Mississippi since Reconstruction, Democrats claimed governors’ seats in five states, and none will be hamstrung by a Republican supermajority in the state legislatures, Voters flipped seats up and down the ballot in states like Texas, Some races were won by 20 points, some as high as 40, The election came off without significant hitches, and the win was, as hoped, “too big to rig,”  The results were a rejection of the Republican ideology that has driven American politics since the 1980s, that some people are better than others and have the right to rule, This took hold in response to the push for equality for women and racial minorities, After sending Democrat Jimmy Carter to the White House in 1976, Americans elected Ronald Reagan who won by attacking the modern American state, Reagan tied racial and gender inequality to economic prosperity, That combination worked until Trump’s second term, The administration's policies have hurt regular Americans, and in the election those Americans came together across the lines the Republicans have exploited, The election is a historic rebuke of the Republican ideology, and the results will turn the focus to Americans’ needs, and on checking Trump and his administration, Trump is a lame duck and he has turned his attention to his DC projects, Meanwhile the Republicans who hope to follow him to the White House are trying to draw lines distinguishing themselves, But for now, Americans have moved on. To read this letter, click here:Listen on Apple PodcastsListen on SpotifyYou can also find Heather at:YouTubeBlueskyInstagramFacebookThreadsTikTok Get full access to Letters from an American at heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/subscribe

To read this letter, click here:Listen on Apple PodcastsListen on SpotifyYou can also find Heather at:YouTubeBlueskyInstagramFacebookThreadsTikTok Get full access to Letters from an American at heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/subscribe

November 1, 2026Trump intends to try to steal the 2026 midterm election, He is trying to boost his own popularity, sending e-mail messages extolling the efficiency of the Social Security Administration, His administration is, at the same time, using the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security to threaten local and state election officials, In Alaska, the administration has asked a judge to order election officials to separate all ballots that rank Daniel J Sullivan, who shares a name with the Republican incumbent who is running for re-election, US District Judge Sharon Gleason has dismissed the lawsuit prohibiting the state from certifying any winner in Alaska other than the Republican incumbent, The administration will appeal her decision, Meanwhile Democrats have filed a lawsuit over Alaska’s apparent failure to open at least 18 early voting locations, Trump held a lavish Halloween party at Mar-a-Lago, even as Americans are struggling under soaring oil and gas prices caused by Trump’s war in Iran, At the party Trump acknowledged that a Chinese spy targeted Nvidia’s CEO to obtain information about the company’s advanced AI chips, Trump chose not to do anything about this transfer, Republicans in charge of Alaska’s state government are asking that the administration’s lawsuit be rejected by the court, reiterating that states, and not the federal government, control elections.To read this letter, click here:Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on SpotifyYou can also find Heather at:YouTubeBlueskyInstagramFacebookThreadsTikTok Get full access to Letters from an American at heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/subscribe

TOctober 31, 2026Andrew Johnson traveled around the country in advance of the 1866 midterm election, to drum up support for his party, He denounced Congress and called certain Republican members of Congress traitors, and compared himself to Jesus Christ, The Democrats were the party of slavery and secession, and Johnson, a former Democrat who became president in April 1865, after Lincoln’s assassination, opposed the young Republican party’s plans for a future where every man would have the right to the fruits of his own labor,  Johnson pardoned all but about fifteen hundred former Confederates, He refused to endorse Black voting, and by requiring little of the southern States, he guaranteed that the same men who had taken the South out of the Union would be responsible for bringing it back in, They joined Johnson in trying to re-create the world of the Old South, and in each state, through the Black Codes, they guaranteed the dominance of white people in the South, But Republicans had no intention of allowing the South to become more powerful, and Congress refused to seat the South’s representatives, A committee of fifteen members was assigned to come up with a better plan for rebuilding the nation, and introduced the joint resolution that would become the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, Both chambers of Congress agreed to the amendment on June 18, 1866 and sent it to the states for ratification, Johnson hated the proposed Fourteenth Amendment, Johnson told southern politicians to ignore Congress, He set out on a railroad tour to whip up support for Democrats before the 1866 election, But white supremacist violence and everything that Johnson stood for were too much for voters, Rather than turning against the Republicans in the election, voters gave the Republicans a two-thirds majority of Congress, enabling them to override Johnson, and in 1868 the states ratified the Fourteenth Amendment.To read this letter, click here:Listen on Apple PodcastsListen on SpotifyYou can also find Heather at:YouTubeBlueskyInstagramFacebookThreadsTikTok Get full access to Letters from an American at heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/subscribe

October 30, 2026Stories of fraud continue, Last summer, the Department of Homeland Security paid more than $495 million for a 1,600 bed prison that the state of Minnesota declined to purchase at a selling price of $75 million, Trump Media and Technology Group, of which Trump owns 41%, received $350,000 for running ads on Trump’s social media site for Freedom 250, Low-engagement voters, who don’t pay much attention to politics, are swinging away from Trump, Almost half of Americans' spending now goes toward food and housing, the highest percentage in years, Oil company profits are skyrocketing, Americans are angry that oil companies are profiting while consumers pay higher prices and bear the cost of cuts to Medicaid, ACA subsidies, SNAP, medical and scientific research while Trump’s war in Iran goes on and on, The cost of the Iran war is now estimated to be more than $47 billion, without counting the costs of the damage to US military bases in the Middle East, US officials have warned Gulf Arab countries to be prepared for renewed strikes on Iran, Trump’s rallies for Republican candidates have not drawn big crowds, and Republicans are distancing themselves from him, Trump keeps going on the road, hoping to sell voters on his message, but that won’t be an easy sell. To read this letter, click here:Listen on Apple PodcastsListen on SpotifyYou can also find Heather at:YouTubeBlueskyInstagramFacebookThreadsTikTok Get full access to Letters from an American at heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/subscribe