Politics Chat

Topics covered in today’s Politics Chat: Voters in the 2026 midterm elections rejected Trump and an era of concentrating wealth among a few. Some Democrats are frustrated with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. Incoming committee chairs are signaling aggressive oversight starting in January. Representative Thomas Massie plans to reintroduce articles of impeachment against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. The Electoral College no longer serves the purposes the framers designed it for. The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact offers one possible fix. Incoming House Oversight Committee chair Robert Garcia announced investigations into Trump family corruption and the Epstein files. Trump signed an executive order giving historic designations to the Oval Office and Cabinet Room. JD Vance blamed the war in Iran for Republican losses. Harmeet Dhillon resigned as Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights. The Magnificent Seven tech companies lost about $1 trillion in market value as oversight looms. Montana voters approved a measure barring corporations from political spending. Watch today's live recording here.Listen on Apple PodcastsListen on SpotifyGet full, free access to Letters from an American here.You can also find Heather:YouTubeBlueskyInstagramFacebookThreadsTikTok Get full access to Letters from an American at heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/subscribe

Topics covered in today’s Politics Chat: The 2026 midterm election appears to have been a sea change in American politics. Democrats are projected to win at least 258 seats in the House of Representatives. Democrats flipped seven Senate seats in Iowa, Kansas, Ohio, Maine, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Texas. Democrats also flipped governorships in Iowa, Georgia, Ohio, Nevada, and Texas. Rural voters swung heavily toward Democrats after cuts to Medicaid and food assistance. Elon Musk poured nearly half a billion into the midterms. About 124 million people voted, the highest midterm turnout since 1914 apart from 2018. The election was peaceful despite widespread fears of interference. The results were a repudiation of Trump and of the 40-year Reagan era. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Vice President JD Vance are already distancing themselves from Trump. Democrats plan to launch oversight hearings and subpoenas when the new Congress is seated in January. Grassroots organizing, not party leadership, drove the shift. Watch today's live recording here.Listen on Apple PodcastsListen on SpotifyGet full, free access to Letters from an American here.You can also find Heather:YouTubeBlueskyInstagramFacebookThreadsTikTok Get full access to Letters from an American at heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/subscribe

Topics covered in today’s Politics Chat: Today is Election Day 2026. Polls suggest Democrats will take the House of Representatives. It is not clear what will happen in the Senate. There has been no violence at the polls. The administration has repeatedly lost in its attempts to steal the election. Florida governor Ron DeSantis attacked Trump for gaslighting Americans about gas prices. Republicans are anonymously blaming Trump in the press for their party’s troubles. Fox News hosts cut Trump off during a call-in interview today. Democrats want to restore SNAP benefits cut by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The next Congress may rein in the imperial presidency, as Congress did during the Watergate era. Heather discusses how Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin after the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act and its impact on American politics today.Watch today's live recording here.Listen on Apple PodcastsListen on SpotifyGet full, free access to Letters from an American here.You can also find Heather:YouTubeBlueskyInstagramFacebookThreadsTikTok Get full access to Letters from an American at heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/subscribe

Topics covered in today’s Politics Chat: The New York Times story about a second Dan Sullivan on the Alaska ballot is a non-story. Spoiler candidates are common in American elections. The bigger Alaska story is that at least 18 early and absentee in-person voting sites failed to open. Elon Musk funded Cornel West’s 2024 presidential run through two dark money channels. In the election of 1844, Liberty Party candidate James G. Birney drew enough votes in New York to hand the presidency to James K. Polk. Polk’s win led to the Mexican-American War and the spread of slavery into the Southwest. Democratic control of either chamber of Congress would open investigations into the Trump administration. A Democratic Senate could stop rubber stamping Trump’s judicial nominees. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is the likely first target for impeachment. Trump pulled out of a scheduled rally in Kansas. He is laying the groundwork to claim the election was rigged. Republicans endorsing Democrats this year echo the Mugwumps of 1884. Watch today's live recording here.Listen on Apple PodcastsListen on SpotifyGet full, free access to Letters from an American here.You can also find Heather:YouTubeBlueskyInstagramFacebookThreadsTikTok Get full access to Letters from an American at heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/subscribe

Topics covered in today’s Politics Chat: Trump and his allies came into office intending to dismantle the postwar rules-based international order and replace it with spheres of influence. Trump has taken Venezuela and is pursuing an opaque oil deal with what appears to be a shell company. Right-wing candidate Flávio Bolsonaro lost Brazil’s presidential election to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Bolsonaro now appears to have fled Brazil. In Serbia, the authoritarian government fell to a popular movement. House Judiciary Committee Democrats led by Representative Jamie Raskin released a report tying Trump to the Epstein files. Trump allies have floated blanket pardons for White House staffers ahead of possible investigations. Elon Musk has put about $445 million into the midterm elections. Armed ICE agents have knocked on doors in six states checking immigration status and voting. Trump stopped new bipartisan sanctions on Russia days before they were to take effect. More than 32 million Americans have already voted early. Watch today's live recording here.Listen on Apple PodcastsListen on SpotifyGet full, free access to Letters from an American here.You can also find Heather:YouTubeBlueskyInstagramFacebookThreadsTikTok Get full access to Letters from an American at heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/subscribe

Topics covered in today’s Politics Chat: Trump said he asked Elon Musk to lift restrictions on Starlink and Starshield, the communications networks Ukraine relies on to fight off Russia. The slowdown of those networks during a massive Russian barrage left Ukraine unable to defend against incoming drones and missiles. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton suggested that Vladimir Putin has something on Trump. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s staff dropped and damaged a globe Dwight Eisenhower used to plan World War II. White House leaks suggest aides are jockeying for power as Trump heads toward lame duck status. Vice President JD Vance backed Vivek Ramaswamy’s attack ad against Amy Acton, which drew bipartisan revulsion. Secretary of State Marco Rubio appears to be iced out of talks with Russia. Republicans timed the biggest Medicaid and SNAP cuts in their budget bill for after the midterms. New candidates across the country are reshaping American politics much as in the 1850s. Attorney General Todd Blanche would not rule out challenging some votes. Watch today's live recording here.Listen on Apple PodcastsListen on SpotifyGet full, free access to Letters from an American here.You can also find Heather:YouTubeBlueskyInstagramFacebookThreadsTikTok Get full access to Letters from an American at heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/subscribe

Topics covered in today’s Politics Chat: Socialism is a system in which the government owns the means of production. After the Civil War, opponents of Black voting used the term socialism to attack Black political participation. Two days before congressionally mandated sanctions on Russia were set to take effect, Trump said he would waive them. Russia has proposed a trilateral meeting with Trump and Chinese president Xi Jinping to decide the fate of Ukraine. Ukrainian forces lost control of their drones when Starlink slowed during one of the worst bombardments of the war. The Wall Street Journal reported that Elon Musk ordered the slowdown. Europe and Canada are working to build their own satellite systems. Republicans in Congress say they are frustrated with Trump’s actions, but they have not moved to stop him. Trump announced $8 billion for farmers, but payment rates will not be announced until after the election. Watch today's live recording here.Listen on Apple PodcastsListen on SpotifyGet full, free access to Letters from an American here.You can also find Heather:YouTubeBlueskyInstagramFacebookThreadsTikTok Get full access to Letters from an American at heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/subscribe

Topics covered in today’s Politics Chat: Trump has flipped U.S. foreign policy away from the post-World War II rules-based international order. He is openly siding with Vladimir Putin over Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky. Trump removed sanctions on Russian oil, even as Congress voted overwhelmingly on a bipartisan basis for more sanctions. SpaceX communication systems that direct Ukraine’s defensive and offensive drones were disabled without warning. Elon Musk and the White House are trading blame over who gave that order. Reports from Ukraine indicate the systems are working again. Former representative Matt Gaetz and former Seminole County tax collector Joel Greenberg have been sued in a civil lawsuit alleging they coordinated payments, drugs, and travel to obtain commercial sex acts. Scandals are breaking across the administration as officials turn on each other. The Washington Post reported that nearly $300 million in donations to Trump’s ballroom are flowing through an opaque fund he controls. Watch today's live recording here.Listen on Apple PodcastsListen on SpotifyGet full, free access to Letters from an American here.You can also find Heather:YouTubeBlueskyInstagramFacebookThreadsTikTok Get full access to Letters from an American at heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/subscribe

Topics covered in today’s Politics Chat: Trump posted videos of lions and tigers attacking humans. Right-wing influencers spread a false story that Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico was being treated for a mental health crisis in Ohio. The Wall Street Journal reported that Ken Paxton, the Republican Senate candidate in Texas, spent New Year’s Eve 2024 in Dubai with two fugitives charged with defrauding the health care system. ProPublica reported that criminal syndicates stole $470 million from SNAP benefit cards last year. New White House press secretary Katie Zacharia gave a widely criticized first press conference. Kimberly Guilfoyle resigned as ambassador to Greece after reports that she pressed a donor to pay her American Express bill. Soaring diesel prices are hitting rural Americans especially hard. Trump dropped US sanctions on Russian oil, giving Vladimir Putin a lifeline in his war against Ukraine. Representative Ilhan Omar’s Washington, DC residence was searched for five hours. No Kings rallies on October 17 aim to get Americans out to vote. Watch today's live recording here.Listen on Apple PodcastsListen on SpotifyGet full, free access to Letters from an American here.You can also find Heather:YouTubeBlueskyInstagramFacebookThreadsTikTok Get full access to Letters from an American at heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/subscribe

Topics covered in today’s Politics Chat: The Wall Street Journal reported that Kimberly Guilfoyle, Trump’s nominee for ambassador to Greece, asked Trump loyalist Eric Deters to pay off 100,000 dollars of her American Express bill before her Senate hearing. Days after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced Project Meridian, Anduril co-founder Palmer Luckey’s company received a 2.9 billion dollar contract. Hegseth said the execution of former Army major Nidal Hasan, scheduled for December 3, would be public, and the plan drew bipartisan backlash. Trump said after a call with Vladimir Putin that Russia will supply 300,000 tons of diesel globally. Trump posted that Minnesota is being taken over by Somali immigrants. CNN reported that Immigration and Customs Enforcement leaders verbally told agents to raise arrests from 1,000 to 3,000 people a day. An ICE agent shot and wounded a Dominican man in New York City with a child in the car. A Pew Research Center poll found 68 percent disapprove of Trump’s handling of the presidency.Watch today's live recording here.Listen on Apple PodcastsListen on SpotifyGet full, free access to Letters from an American here.You can also find Heather:YouTubeBlueskyInstagramFacebookThreadsTikTok Get full access to Letters from an American at heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/subscribe