If you believe that, we have a health care plan for you that will be ready in about, oh, two weeks.

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Congressman Jim Himes, who represents Connecticut’s 4th District and is the ranking Democrat on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, disagrees. He joined The Frank Figliuzzi Show to talk about the war — as Donald Trump has announced potential retaliatory action after Iran shot down an Apache helicopter. Himes notes that Iran has survived the U.S.’ initial attacks and maintains control over the critical Strait of Hormuz.

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The Congressman also discussed concerns he has over Acting Director of National Intelligence Bill Pulte, as well as the reauthorization of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).

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Tim Whitaker and April Ajoy jump into some of the highlights from this weekend’s event helmed by Erika Kirk on the latest edition of The Tim & April Show. And as they play through some of these speeches, you get a real sense of how TPUSA and its allies propagandize women against feminism with their selective understanding of Biblical stories and verses. It really is a bankrupt theology, as Whitaker notes.

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While other Dems hedge on the need for investigations, Conway says that the base layer of our Democracy is our ability to hold the powerful and corrupt responsible for their actions.

Steven has questions (six of them).

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Eighty-two years ago, Allied troops charged into the surf at Normandy. Thousands died, but their legacy, however tenuous, lives on — of stopping fascism, of saving democracy, of preserving the idea that free nations could endure.

This past Saturday, in a small parish in Battle Creek, Michigan, we buried Joe Schwarz. During one of our first interviews, he told me one of his formative memories was hearing the bells ring out for D-Day when he was just six years old. As the son of veterans, he was taught early on: You are here to serve.

And he did.

But you probably don’t know his name. That’s part of the point.

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Joe Schwarz served one term in the United States Congress, representing a mid-Michigan district from 2005 to 2007. He was a surgeon, Vietnam veteran, and former CIA operative who did missions in North Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia to locate and liberate American prisoners of war. He was the mayor of Battle Creek. He was a state senator. He was a proud, outspoken moderate Republican who voted his conscience and lost his seat because of it.

He touched the lives of thousands of patients he treated and politicians he served with from both parties. His eulogies were delivered by former Republican Governor John Engler — a dear friend and colleague who sparred with him more than once — and current Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer, one of the many public servants he mentored during his long career.

That’s not something you often see these days.

The Last One Standing

When Joe Schwarz entered Congress in 2004, he was already something of a relic. (He would often wryly refer to himself as a Wooly Mammoth). The physician was pro-choice in a party that had spent a generation purging those who failed purity tests from its ranks. He believed in governance, in expertise, in the kind of sober, unglamorous public service that doesn’t trend on social media because it was never designed to.

In 2006, Republicans who controlled the U.S. House put up a vote on a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage, engineered as a political weapon for the midterms. Everyone told Schwarz that voting yes could help him keep his seat in a tough GOP primary.

He voted no.

He lost to Tim Walberg, a far-right preacher who has since served in Congress for nearly 20 years and become one of Trump’s most reliable foot soldiers. The contrast doesn’t need elaboration (although I’ve done so many times).

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Dr. Caplan is deeply worried about the impacts MAHA will have on Americans. When you look beyond their niche mission to restrict red dye and seed oils, their real plan emerges: gutting real medical research, a war on vaccinations, and even eugenics. Dr. Caplan breaks down what’s really going on (including MAHA’s ties to Jeffrey Epstein) and how we, as Americans, must wake up to what’s happening and fight back.

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Don’t miss this episode of History of the Present, co-produced by and .

MACKINAC ISLAND — U.S. Sen. Gary Peters (D-Michigan) has spent almost two decades in Congress, passing legislation across party lines and keeping his head down when politics got ugly. Now, in the final months of his Senate career, he’s in a different mode.

The Iran war. A wide-open Senate primary to replace him. A Republican Party he says has abandoned any pretense of governing. And a once-unthinkable opportunity for Democrats to take back the Senate majority.

I’ve covered Peters for the last 20 years. He sat down with me at the Mackinac Policy Conference on Mackinac Island, where Michigan’s political and business elite gather for three days of panels, debates, and dealmaking. We discussed Trump, Iran, the Michigan U.S. Senate race, and the one piece of legislation he says he’ll carry with him when he leaves Washington.

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‘A War of Choice’ — and a Mess Trump Can’t Get Out of

Peters didn’t mince words about the Trump administration’s decision to go to war with Iran — and what it’s costing ordinary Americans.

“We have a mess,” he said. “Donald Trump waded into a complete mess of a war. He’s kind of flailing and trying to find a successful conclusion to it.”

The senator served in the Navy, studied at the Naval War College, and is the Ranking Member of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. He offered a pointed critique of the military planning — or lack of it — that preceded the conflict. Peters noted that the Navy’s minesweepers, widely understood to be essential to any Iran contingency given the threat of the Straits of Hormuz being blocked, were stationed in Japan when the war began.

“You wouldn’t go to war, typically, against Iran and risk having the straits closed down by mines when you have your minesweepers in Japan,” he said. “We would have the assets in place before the war.”

That tactical failure, Peters argued, reflects a broader recklessness that’s now hitting Michigan families in the wallet. The ongoing war with Iran has led to a substantial rise in the cost of living — fuel prices, food prices, fertilizer, commodities — and Peters sees it as the dominant political issue heading into the midterms.

“Americans are already stressed economically for a whole list of reasons,” he said. “And even if this war comes to some sort of end in the near term, gas prices and energy prices — they don’t recover right away. It’s going to take a long time for that to happen.”

Trump has repeatedly claimed a deal with Iran is imminent. Peters wasn’t buying it.

“I don’t think it helps matters that we’re always on the verge of a deal that never seems to materialize,” he said. “That creates even more uncertainty in the markets, and when there’s uncertainty in the markets, that means prices are higher.”

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The Michigan Senate Race: ‘This Will Be the Center of the Political Universe.’

Peters announced last year that he would not seek a third term — which shocked many in Michigan politics and immediately set off a scramble to succeed him. In November, this will be one of the most consequential races in the country.

Democrats are embroiled in a three-way primary on August 4. The winner will likely take on Republican former Congressman Mike Rogers in the Nov. 3 general election.

Peters has not endorsed a candidate in the Democratic primary, but his wife, Oakland University Trustee Colleen Ochoa Peters, has endorsed Congresswoman Haley Stevens. He said he talks regularly with all three Democratic contenders — Stevens, state Sen. Mallory McMorrow, and former public health official Abdul El-Sayed. But Peters declined to answer when I asked him which candidate has the best shot in the general election.

But he did stress that the seat is essential to any Democratic path back to the Senate majority — and losing it is not an option.

“When I say we have a good shot to take the majority of the Senate, that’s incumbent on us holding this seat,” he said. “This will be the center of the political universe come this fall. It will be the center of the political universe.”

He issued a clear warning to Democratic activists who might sit out the general if their candidate doesn’t win the primary.

“Whoever wins, everybody has to be united behind them — level ten,” Peters said. “We can’t have folks who are purists that only support their candidate and then sit out the general election, because the difference between where Mike Rogers is versus all three Democratic candidates is pretty big.”

Rogers, Peters said, should be taken seriously despite running a campaign that has tried to portray him as a moderate. Peters knows Rogers — they served together both in the Legislature and in Congress — and he said Republicans are ready to spend big, regardless of who wins the Democratic primary.

“You have to take that race seriously,” Peters said. “You will not lack for any resources on the Republican side. So you have to take that race seriously.”

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‘Republicans Have Abdicated their Constitutional Duty’

Peters has served during both of Trump’s terms. The difference, he said, is stark — and it goes beyond policy.

In his first term, Trump had at least some resistance from within his cabinet, Peters told me. That resistance has largely disappeared during his second term. And he adds that the GOP-controlled Congress has failed to perform its most basic constitutional function: checking presidential power.

“Our founders were very clear that Congress should be the most powerful branch,” he said. “They always had some reservation about a president because they had just defeated a king in the Revolutionary War.”

The problem, Peters argued, isn’t just Trump. It’s the Republican majority’s decision to let him take powers that belong to Congress — on tariffs, on war, on spending — without a fight.

Peters argued that democracy must ultimately earn back public trust by delivering real results rather than by creating rhetoric. If Democrats take back the House and the Senate this November, he said, that changes immediately.

“When we take control, you’ll definitely see a more assertive Congress,” he said. “Things like war powers and the powers of the purse.”

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The Legacy He’ll Carry: Fighting for Veterans

Asked what he’s most proud of after nearly two decades in Congress, Peters didn’t rattle off a foreign policy achievement or a marquee bill. He told me a story about a homeless Marine in Grand Rapids.

The veteran had served in Afghanistan, come home with undiagnosed PTSD, self-medicated, and received a bad paper discharge from the Marines. When he finally went to the VA and was diagnosed with service-related PTSD, he was told they couldn’t help him — because of the discharge.

“Here he is, diagnosed with PTSD as a result of his military service in Afghanistan, but couldn’t get help for it, and he was homeless on the streets,” Peters said.

The Senator sponsored the Fairness for Veterans Act, which changed the law so that veterans with credible evidence of service-connected conditions can petition a board to have their discharge status reviewed — and get the VA treatment they earned.

“He’s been helped,” Peters said. “And so have many thousands more.”

It is a quiet legacy, the kind that doesn’t make cable news. It fits a senator who built his reputation on turning off what he calls “campaign Gary” and turning on “governing Gary” — focused on results, not performance.

As he prepares to leave Washington, Peters said the work isn’t done. It never is.

“I’ll stay active,” he said. “I’m not retiring.”

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We turn to David Nir, publisher of The Downballot on Substack, who’s been covering election data from national and local races for over 20 years. He stopped by First Draft with Susan J. Demas to recap some results from last night, like the humiliating loss for South Carolina Congresswoman Nancy Mace in her gubernatorial bid to Graham Planter’s win in Maine as he prepares to take on perpetually “concerned” Republican Susan Collins amid his own controversies.

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Make sure to check out The Downballot throughout the primary season for information about races from the Senate to City Council. And of course, get caught up with the latest election analysis from David Nir on First Draft with Susan J. Demas here on Lincoln Square.

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This is the same guy who has claimed (by some counts) that peace with Iran is just around the corner 37 times. That’s a lot of corners!

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Meanwhile, his polling is cratering more and more every week. We’re in the swing of a powerfully energetic primary season where Democratic voters are showing up not only to vote out the chaos agents, but to vote for candidates that they actually like.

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There is a particular kind of absurdist theater that happens when a man who has spent his life surrounded by people paid to nod and agree with him suddenly collides with journalism.

Under a metal roof booming from a summer storm on a Wisconsin farm, Kristen Welker conducted that experiment in real time.

The results were not a triumph of journalism so much as a clinical observation of a figure in steep decline as a President, as a leader of a party, and as a man. The tantrum was pathetic, juvenile, and politically poisonous.

By the end, the leader of the free world stormed off the set, spitting mad and ranting like an escaped mental patient trying to convince the EMTs that aliens had implanted computer chips in his rectum.

Trump screeched like a cut hog, calling Welker crooked, stupid, and finally…“darling,” and fled into the rain like a man who’d just remembered he left the stove on.

Let’s begin with the lies, because there were so many they formed a kind of weather system of their own.

Start with the one he loves most, the one he returns to like a dog to a familiar patch of political vomit: the 2020 election. Welker, doing the thing journalists are supposed to do, asked for evidence. What she got was a man insisting “there’s more evidence than ever presented,” which is a sentence that eats itself.

You, dear readers, know this a titanic mountain of Trumpian lies.

There is no evidence. There has never been evidence. Sixty-odd courts, dozens of them staffed by his own appointees, looked for it and found nothing.

But watch how he pivots, because this is the tell: cornered on 2020, he leaps immediately to California, where Republicans are “dropping fast” in a slow count because that is, factually, how California counts votes.

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His most recent announcement came last week with Bill Pulte, who’s currently overseeing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, as his Acting Director of National Intelligence.

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Folks, this is a nomination that has many in both parties waving red flags due to Pulte’s severe lack of experience for the position. Putting another loyal toady in charge of our national security could be a disaster.

Steven Cash, executive director of The Steady State, joined former Navy Commander Bobby Jones on the latest edition of Anchor Watch on Lincoln Square and gave a real lesson about the seriousness and professionalism that is legally expected for the role of Director of National Security.

So, how much of a security risk is Pulte to this role? Watch the latest episode of Anchor Watch with Bobby Jones and his guest, The Steady State Executive Director Steven Cash.

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As President Trump intends to surge an additional 1,500 national guard troops into the nation’s Capitol this summer, a new comprehensive study reveals his strategy didn’t have the impact on crime that he claims.

Trump’s summer of soldiers will result in a total army of 5,000 troops patrolling Washington, D.C., with minimal proof that the cost, methodology, and troubling precedent is worth the effort. To the contrary, the data and related analysis by the nonpartisan Niskanen Center think tank shows the ongoing deployments have barely made a dent in violent crime.

Trump’s on-going troop deployment did seem to reduce petty property crimes by less than a quarter, but crime in Washington, including robberies, had already hit a 30-year low, and was already on a downward trend before Trump even came back into office. This raises serious doubts about how much the petty crime decline could be attributed to the deployment. Importantly, the study concluded there was virtually no impact on violence, and certainly not the kind of cost-benefit analysis that merits doubling down on the number of men and women in camouflage on the streets of our capital city.

The feds say they will use the additional troops to help battle criminal activity, violence, and trafficking of illegal drugs and guns, yet evidence to date shows no connection between guard patrols and those systemic challenges. Authorities also assert the troops will help deal with the growing challenge of large, disorderly teen gatherings or “take-overs”; a scenario that could produce regrettable, even ominous, news clips of armed uniformed warfighters chasing unruly kids around parking lots.

Trump first deployed the National Guard to D.C. last August, as part of his Safe and Beautiful Task Force, which he’s replicated in New Orleans and Memphis and wants to expand to other cities. The president did this by declaring a a public safety emergency via executive order, temporarily taking control of D.C. law enforcement, and becoming the first president to invoke the D.C. Home Rule Act – declaring his decision, “liberation day.” Now, according to DOJ officials, this summer surge is only the beginning of Guard deployments.

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Hopium Chronicles By Simon Rosenberg

Trump's Incredible Meltdown, Rigging Elections, And The "Majority Illusion"

Morning all. Hosting an important event at 2pm ET today - Colette Delawalla of Stand Up For Science joins us to talk about their new campaign to Stop Vought. Save Science. Click on this link right before 2pm today to join us live. Going to be a good one…

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3 days ago · 419 likes · 74 comments · Simon Rosenberg

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Trump’s meltdown is epic, indeed, and he’s beginning to take on the appearance of a caged animal. He and the MAGA base are crying foul at the Los Angeles mayoral race because their chosen candidate (a reality star, obviously) didn’t make the final cut. On social media, there are a million posts about how Trump and Co. don’t understand how elections work, or how they’re all a bunch of soft babies, etc.

And maybe that’s true. But it could also be true that they know exactly how elections work, and they know they’re about to lose in potentially historic fashion. Their whining about the mayoral race could be a preview of something much more sinister.

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and Simon talk through the MAGA meltdowns, Trump’s recent wild spate of losses, and what it will take to win and rebuild this country.

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Susan J. Demas and Edwin Eisendrath, host of It’s The Democracy, Stupid on Lincoln Square, look at the less than warm welcome Donald Trump received from those attending last nights Game 3 of the NBA Championship. And after 27 years of waiting for this occasion, Knicks fans had every right to be angry. Trump’s presence shut down streets, canceled watch parties, and brought nothing but long lines and delays, all so he could fall asleep by halftime.

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Join Susan and Edwin for their latest analysis and why last night’s events are a metaphor for the Trump presidency, where everything he touches, like America’s 250th Anniversary, turns to ruin.

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Reverend Benjamin Cremer has been dubbed “the digital pastor” for his large social media following for his teachings of the Gospel. He warns that the difference between Christian Nationalism and true teaching of the Bible is the treatment of “the other” — Christian Nationalism demonizes them while Biblical teaching promotes lifting them up.

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Reverend Cremer joined The Frank Figliuzzi Show to talk about why it’s necessary to reject Christian Nationalism and share his own story of preaching the Gospel.

America is in as deep a partisan divide as at any point in our history. In 2017, I said on ABC News that our country was as divided and polarized as at any time since the Civil War. Many people criticized this statement, and I was accused of hyperbole. Hmmm …

At points like this, when the political environment exposes a “house divided” as Lincoln would say, it is crucial to find issues that motivate and persuade across the ideological spectrum while looking at how to win a general election in swing states or swing districts.

Most competent political strategists seek issues and values that can simultaneously motivate their base while also persuading independents. Getting party partisans to turn out as strongly as possible, while also moving swing voters into one’s column on general election day is essential.

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Democrats have the best path right now of running on those “two-fer” issues. For instance, Democratic voters and independent voters both favor the Dems on the economy and inflation. Another two-fer issue is opposing Trump and supporting our Constitution and democracy which both motivates a partisan base and moves swing voters. Health care and supporting Medicare is advantageous ground for Democratic politicians.

Today, there are few issues which have an additive benefit of appealing to opposing partisans or causing those partisans to be less motivated. None of the issues mentioned above appeal to GOP voters or Trump supporters. When you can find an issue that appeals across the complete political spectrum, you have found the “needle in a haystack.”

Well, while perusing polling data this week in the haystack of America, I got stuck by one of those needles. And this issue is missed or underestimated by so many elected officials, though voters are trying to signal to politicians the power of this issue. What is it? The issue is the construction, or proposed construction, of local data centers in communities through the United States.

In a nonpartisan poll done by The Economist/YouGov this past week, the data is clear and the needle is clearly seen. Overall, 60% of voters oppose these local data centers, while a small 24% support the building of local data centers. On its own, this is a strong issue. Looking deeper, 64% of Democratic voters oppose data centers, 63% of independents oppose, and an amazing 52% of Republican voters oppose data centers. In fact, the most hardcore partisan group of “MAGA” supporters — a plurality of 48% — are against local data centers.

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Opposing local data centers appeals across all races and nationalities, all religious affiliations, all age groups, all income groups, and among both women and men. This issue also unites people in all 50 states, including urban, suburban, and rural voters.

This is a unique “three-fer” issue: motivating Democrats, persuading Independents, and demotivating Republicans. My sense is this issue appeals across the political spectrum for several reasons. First, voters are worried about the use and damage to local resources (like water) for data centers. Second, voters are in a very populist mood and upset that billionaire tech titans have way too much sway in today’s society. And third, voters are concerned about security and privacy and think these tech corporations are way too intrusive in citizens’ private lives.

So why is it that most politicians are mute on this issue or acquiesce to the demands of the tech community? I think this a classic case of voters being way ahead of politicians, and politicians being incredibly slow in seeing the power of this issue and staying in tune with the wishes of the voters in America. It is time for candidates to catch up and get in line with voters. And by doing so they will have discovered one of the very few issues which is the perfect storm for politics.

As Lincoln said in his 1858 “House Divided” speech: “If we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, we could better judge what to do, and how to do it.” It seems to me if one’s goal is to accomplish good public policy, win an election, and begin to heal some of the divisions in America, opposing local data centers is a sure winner.

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In the final episode of On the Ground from the Lone Star State, welcomed Jasper Scherer from the Texas Tribune. Scherer discussed the optimism stirring in Texas Dems.

But is that optimism enough to get someone like James Talarico, the Democratic U.S. Senate nominee who’s up against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton? Or will he suffer the same fate as previous promising candidates like Beto O’Rourke and Colin Allred?

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Bari Weiss must be fired. Today.

News requires credibility. News requires balance. News requires judgment. Leading a major news organization requires all of this, managerial talent, and organizational leadership. Eight months into her tenure, she has shredded the organization’s credibility, put her thumb on the scale to mock the very idea of balance, undermined those with better judgment, destroyed morale among the workforce, and her leadership skills are the kind where no one would follow her out of a burning building.

Who do you believe? Credible journalists or Weiss?

In recent weeks, three prominent and extremely credible journalists accused Weiss of tampering with the content of multiple news stories at 60 Minutes, the nation’s most watched news program. The most recent example comes from recently fired 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley who told the New York Times that Weiss pressured him to lie about the Renee Good killing in Minneapolis. (He did not.)

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Editorial interference like this is completely unacceptable and should not be tolerated, not by the CBS and the 60 Minutes staff, not by the corporate owners David and Larry Ellison, not by anyone. Pelley agrees. He told the New York Times Weiss should be fired:

“Do you think Bari Weiss needs to be removed? Oh, gosh, yes.”

Weiss via CBS public relations claims this was normal back and forth but it’s not. There are many layers of editors at 60 Minutes whose actual job it is to review and suggest updates to stories but none of them would surely ever consider asking Scott Pelley to fabricate details like Pelley alleges Weiss did here.

Together, Scott Pelley, Sharyn Alfonsi and Cecilia Vega have over 100 years of hard-hitting news reporting experience. They know how to ask tough questions, dig deep for hidden secrets, speak truth to power and tell honest, fair and objective news stories. Each of them has now publicly accused Bari Weiss or members of her management team of repeatedly overstepping acceptable news oversight to tamper with or even censor their news stories. It is hard to overstate how wildly inappropriate and dangerous that is.

Pelley’s Revealing NYT Interview

Pelley’s latest accusations are truly mortifying. In an incredible interview with the New York Times’ Lulu Garcia-Navarro, Pelley detailed Weiss’ efforts to insert a pro-Trump narrative into his piece on the killing of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis. Pelley had hinted at the editorial interference when he was fired from 60 Minutes last week saying in a statement that “new management has instructed me to inject falsehoods and bias into a politically sensitive story. I’ve been told to include assertions that are unverified.”

Now in the NYT interview, Pelley goes into incredible, damning detail saying, “There was a thumb on the scale for the president’s version of events that I felt was a level of political influence that I had never seen in 37 years at CBS News.“

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He adds:

“We get the piece approved by everyone. And about four hours after our deadline, Bari Weiss sends an email to my boss, Tanya Simon. Two of the things in the email include, can we make the protesters look more violent? Now, I’m paraphrasing. I don’t have the quote, but that’s what was communicated to me. And the other thing, Renee Good’s car. You need to describe her as driving toward the officer.

This is not what you see on the video. On the video, you see the officer standing slightly off the front of the car. And you clearly see Ms. Good’s wheels turned completely as far as they will go, away from the officer. But he shoots her in the head, kills her, and says something about her that I can’t repeat in polite company.

We have gone out of our way in our plan from the very beginning to show the protesters for the responsibility that they had. We had already scrubbed the video archives, looking for those scenes. Somehow that wasn’t enough for Ms. Weiss. The video showed that the officer wasn’t standing in front of the car and she wasn’t driving toward him, but that’s what the president said about that, and that’s the way she wanted it described.”

The entire Pelley interview is jaw-dropping, but it’s Weiss’ attempt to change the facts of his story that really got me. It is hard to overstate how completely inappropriate and unprecedented that sort of corporate meddling is. Nor is it the first time Weiss has meddled with CBS news content trying to put a pro-Trump spin on it.

Weiss Shelving the CECOT Story

Last December, Weiss infamously shelved Sharyn Alfonsi’s piece on the CECOT torture prison, claiming it needed an on-camera response from the Trump administration even though the administration has repeatedly refused to participate. As has been well documented, Alfonsi went public at the time with allegations that Weiss spiked the story for political reasons, not legitimate editorial concerns. She wrote:

“If the administration’s refusal to participate becomes a valid reason to spike a story, we have effectively handed them a ‘kill switch’ for any reporting they find inconvenient.”

Weiss fired Alfonsi in the 60 Minutes bloodbath last month. Alfonsi has been a news reporter since Bari Weiss was in grade school. She’s worked in local TV news and at both ABC News and CBS News, including the last 10 years at 60 Minutes. Alfonsi knows how to report a credible news story — unlike Weiss, who is an opinion writer, not a news reporter. If, like Pelley, Alfonsi is raising an alarm about the corporate meddling at CBS, we should listen.

The same goes for the testimony coming from Cecilia Vega, the third 60 Minutes correspondent who got the axe. Vega also shared examples of Weiss’ efforts to compromise 60 Minutes’ reporting. Vega wrote:

“In recent months, my producing teams and I have experienced efforts to insert political bias into our stories. Reporting teams have held back on submitting story pitches about important news topics out of fear of the internal repercussions. Let’s call this what it is: censorship, both imposed and self-driven. It is dangerous for the show and dangerous for democracy.”

These journalists have credibility. They got it the old fashioned way — they earned it. And what they are telling us is that CBS, under Weiss’ leadership, is no longer a credible news organization. It is, instead, a place where the things that make news news — fairness, accuracy, balance, judgement, reporting, fact-checking, are less important than political spin.

60 Minutes Is Dead

That should have been more than enough reason for the remaining correspondents at 60 Minutes — Leslie Stahl, Bill Whitaker and Jon Wertheim — to quit. But so far, it’s not.

It is beyond me that any of them can continue to work for a company and a news boss like Bari Weiss who so clearly violates every single journalism principle and so easily treats its employees like trash. The trio claims it’s staying because they don’t want 60 Minutes to die. I have news for Leslie, Bill and Jon: 60 Minutes is already dead. Bari Weiss killed it.

All of us who believe in the First Amendment and the importance of fact-based journalism, should call out Weiss’s untoward behavior and put pressure on the Ellison’s to terminate her. Recall the outrage that quickly bubbled up when Disney pulled late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel and his program off the air after pressure from Trump and FCC Chair Brendan Carr? We need a similar response right now.

We as Americans must not acquiesce to the perversion and politicization of our mainstream news media. The country is already teetering from Trump’s authoritarian schemes. We cannot permit him and his acolytes to completely corrupt journalism, turning a credible news outlet into state media.

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What You Can Do

So call CBS News and Paramount/Skydance to register your outrage and demand that Weiss be fired immediately. Turn off CBS. Many viewers have already done just that with the CBS Evening News and it is now suffering a historic ratings collapse. Let companies advertising on CBS know of your displeasure with news tampering and cancel your Paramount subscriptions.

It’s the least we can do.

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There was a time when we could disagree on taxation levels, or how to approach infrastructure or safety net spending, and then shake hands and have a drink with each other. There was a time when a loss at the polls meant a reevaluation of message and policy.

But service means something different to MAGA now. It means self-service. It means service to Dear Leader. It means that anyone — or anything — that gets in your way is fundamentally evil and should be destroyed.

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Former Republican strategist Jeff Timmer joins The Weekly Assignment to talk about a friend he and Susan had in common, former Republican Congressman Joe Schwarz, a surgeon, Vietnam veteran, CIA spy, and longtime public servant. Dr. Schwarz’s funeral this weekend reminded them what it means to serve, and why America is still worth fighting for.

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Plus, they take on Trump's epic meltdown on Meet the Press over the weekend.

MORE GREAT LINCOLN SQUARE SHOWS AHEAD THIS WEEK:

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But if you’re a fan of Unholy Ground and you’ve kept up with the work of Andra Watkins, you know that something much darker lies beneath those two words.

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In this episode, Sam and Andra connect the dots between that phrase, the erasure of our democracy, and a future with no borders and total surveillance, where, as Andra puts it, “whoever owns the surveillance infrastructure will be the one true god.”

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Harvey Kronberg, who publishes Quorum Report, one of the definitive publications about Texas politics, has been covering the Lone Star state for years. With the primaries now in the rearview, Kronberg spoke with Joe Trippi for another edition of On The Ground about the latest polling and why Democrats have a good shot at toppling some Republicans this year.

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And will the redistricting efforts in the state pushed by Donald Trump backfire? Check out this latest episode of On The Ground with Joe Trippi and guest Harvey Kronberg of Quorum Report, now on Lincoln Square.