In Tucker Carlson's noble quest to protect Donald Trump and the racist right from marauding liberals taking over America with their gender politics, the Fox News host is doubling down on the parallel universe he inhabits. In a truly extraordinary claim, Carlson stated that thus ...read more

• By Ben Cohen
  May 16, 2018

It is hard to imagine what it must be like to work in the Trump administration or for him in any other capacity. Facing scandals and utter chaos in every direction, the Trump team has been in a perpetual state of crisis for as long as it has existed. In recent times however, the ...read more

• By Ben Cohen
  Nov 9, 2018

For some time now, there have been random stories and more than a few rumors about the Republican Party's links to Russian money and, more importantly, Russia's attack on our democratic institutions. We generally know the extent of what the head of the party, President David ...read more

• By Bob Cesca
  Nov 9, 2018

President Trump, who is definitely not compromised by Russia in anyway, has delayed imposing additional sanctions on Russia that Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley had stated were on the way last weekend. Via HuffPost/Reuters:  U.S. President Donald Trump has delayed ...read more

• By Ben Cohen
  Apr 17, 2018

We could probably spend weeks listing all of the reasons why Trump voters ultimately cast their ballots for the Mad King. What's truly baffling to me, even more than the reasons for their votes, is how they can continue to celebrate their guy while their tiny brains are routinely ...read more

• By Bob Cesca
  Nov 9, 2018

Apparently Donald Trump thinks he's finally potty-trained enough to earn himself a pair of big boy pants. Reports from inside the White House this week suggest that Trump feels as though he's learned enough about being president to call his own shots without the aid of his ...read more

• By Bob Cesca
  Nov 9, 2018

President Trump spoke with British Prime Minister Theresa May about Russia's poisoning of double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter on British soil last week, and pledged his full support. He reportedly told May that he is with Britain "all the way", but stipulated that he ...read more

• By Ben Cohen
  Mar 14, 2018

If Donald Trump did not collude with the Russian government to throw the 2016 election in his favor, he would no doubt be extremely alarmed about the definitive intelligence reports stating that the Kremlin is planning on disrupting the midterm elections this year. And yet ...read more

• By Ben Cohen
  Nov 9, 2018

The official story behind the woefully unqualified White House communications directorHope Hick's decision to quit today is, well, pretty laughable. Reported the New York Times:  Hope Hicks, the White House communications director and one of President Trump’s longest-serving ...read more

• By Ben Cohen
  Nov 9, 2018

In an extraordinary statement on Twitter, former FBI director James Comey ripped into Trump and the Republican Party's attempts to smear the agency with the ludicrous 'Nunes Memo':  To refer to the President of the United States and the major political party in power as ...read more

• By Ben Cohen
  Nov 9, 2018

Good evening. As many of you know, a couple of years ago I started a business venture that included running for President of the United States. I was in more debt than anyone except Robert Mueller probably knows. One night, a couple of Russian oligarchs at Mar-a-Lago suggested I ...read more

• By Rich Herschlag
  Nov 9, 2018

In 2013 when the movie 'Zero Dark Thirty' came out, Glenn Greenwald wrote a predictably pedantic and scathing review about its complicity with the pro Obama/pro CIA/pro neo imperialist/deep state. A reader cheekily left a comment on the piece asking the Guardian that they should ...read more

• By Ben Cohen
  Nov 9, 2018

Former White House chief strategist and former Breitbart CEO Steve Bannon has made a deal to speak with special counsel Robert Mueller regarding Russia's interference into the 2016 election. What this means is anyone's guess, but given the very public falling out between Bannon ...read more

• By Ben Cohen
  Nov 9, 2018

Steve Bannon is not only waging war on the GOP establishment, it appears he has now turned his attention onto his political protege, Donald Trump. In a truly astonishing series of excerpts from an upcoming book by Michael Wolff, the Guardian has revealed that Bannon believes the ...read more

• By Ben Cohen
  Nov 9, 2018

Speaking on Fox News today, Tom Fitton, the head of a conservative watchdog group stated that not only does the Mueller investigation need to be "shutdown", but the entire FBI too: "I think the FBI's been compromised," said Fitton. "Forget about shutting down Mr. Mueller. Do we ...read more

• By Ben Cohen
  Dec 14, 2017

If you've been paying attention to the coordinated attacks on Special Counsel Robert Mueller coming from the pro-Trump media, you will have noticed a dramatic acceleration over the past couple of weeks. This is because Trump is almost certainly planning to fire him, yet again ...read more

• By Ben Cohen
  Nov 9, 2018

In a stunning confession, president Trump's personal lawyer John Dowd, took responsibility on Sunday for a tweet that Trump sent on Saturday claiming he knew his former security adviser, Michael Flynn, had lied to the FBI before he fired him in February: The tweet clearly ...read more

• By Ben Cohen
  Nov 9, 2018

Although most of the Breitbart journalists are completely detached from objective reality, a sprinkling of them do seem to grasp certain aspects of just how bad the Mueller probe is going to be for Donald Trump, particularly with Michael Flynn's decision to cooperate with him. ...read more

• By Ben Cohen
  Nov 9, 2018

Special Counsel Robert Mueller is the most important man in American politics right now. Mueller is America’s last chance in removing the tyrannical Donald Trump from office, and Trump knows it. This is why the latest news coming from the investigation is encouraging. Thus far, ...read more

• By Robert Covington, Jr.
  Nov 9, 2018

The Banter Long Read: Somehow, this story involves yogurt. You might recall a sidebar during last year's election season about Chobani, the Greek yogurt people... To continue reading this MEMBERS ONLY article, please go here. You'll get unrestricted access to all our member's ...read more

• By Bob Cesca
  Nov 9, 2018

by Kate Harveston Americans are no strangers to complications in the White House. Andrew Jackson wed a married woman during his time in office, Grover Cleveland had an illegitimate child during an election year and won anyway, Richard Nixon rang in the modern era of ...read more

• By Guest Contributor
  Nov 9, 2018

You have to wonder whether Donald Trump is actively trying to get himself impeached. He clearly desperately wants out of the job he hates, and is doing everything in his power to isolate himself from his party and the entire US government. In response to a question about ...read more

• By Ben Cohen
  Nov 9, 2018

by Kate Harveston Refrigerators, cell phones, dress shoes; these are things you might expect to hear described as “high-quality.” You can even check Consumer Reports, get an objective look at their performance and draw your own conclusions based on feedback from hundreds of ...read more

• By Guest Contributor
  Nov 9, 2018

Don't look now, but Congress just checkmated Donald Trump. Both chambers, both parties... To continue reading this article, please go here. A Banter Membership gets you access to the magazine and all our Members Only content. Your membership also directly funds independent ...read more

• By Bob Cesca
  Nov 9, 2018

It came as no surprise to me that our Government Ethics Chief, Walter Shaub, resigned a few weeks ago. I had the pleasure of listening to him speak and answer questions today at the NPC where he discussed the seriousness of what’s happening inside our White House, and to our ...read more

• By Christina McDowell
  Nov 9, 2018

Even though it's only been a handful of months since my friend and colleague Chez Pazienza died, it feels like it's been a lot longer than that.. To continue reading this article, please go here. A Banter Membership gets you access to the magazine and all our Members Only ...read more

• By Bob Cesca
  Jul 27, 2017

In a sign that the White House is officially in complete panic mode, Donald Trump is using his favorite scapegoat to detract from the growing investigation into their collusion with Russia. In an unhinged Twitter rant this morning, the Commander In Chief was up bright and early ...read more

• By Ben Cohen
  Jul 22, 2017

The Senate Judiciary Committee has asked that both Donald Trump Jr. and Paul Manafort testify next week, and in the memo they sent out, they have asked for any and all correspondence between them and Dr. Jill Stein, the 2016 Green Party candidate for President of the United ...read more

• By Jeremy Fassler
  Nov 9, 2018

With President Trump's inability to accomplish any tangible objective in office, Sean Hannity is turning on everyone he used to love in order to deflect attention away from the president's collapsing job approval numbers.  In an astonishing failure of political leadership and ...read more

• By Ben Cohen
  Jul 19, 2017

One of the themes I've been consistently writing about is the alternate reality Donald Trump and his supporters have managed to create over the past two years. While Fox News laid the groundwork for this new, fact free dystopia where up is down, black is white, and immigrants ...read more

• By Ben Cohen
  Jul 18, 2017

When I lived in Hawaii, there was a commonly used maxim about the weather. If you didn't like what was falling from the sky, wait five minutes.... To continue reading this article, please go here. A Banter Membership gets you access to the magazine and all our Members Only ...read more

• By Bob Cesca
  Nov 9, 2018

What does Donald Trump's chief cheerleader Sean Hannity do when incontrovertible evidence arises that Trump colluded with the Russian government in attempting to destabilize the US election? Simple: he goes after Hillary Clinton.  Retweeting a 5 month old story from Hannity's ...read more

• By Ben Cohen
  Jul 11, 2017

According to president Trump, during his face to face meeting with Vladimir Putin, he discussed collaboration with the Kremlin on an "impenetrable Cyber Security unit," to prevent "election hacking": If ever there was proof that Trump genuinely lives in a completely alternate ...read more

• By Ben Cohen
  Nov 9, 2018

Proving yet again that he is manifestly unfit to be the Commander in Chief, Donald Trump is now blaming President Obama for Russia hacking the 2016 election, and also calling it a Democratic "scam". He tweeted out the following salvo in response to the latest revelations from ...read more

• By Ben Cohen
  Nov 9, 2018

Sean Hannity is convinced the Trump administration has no ties to Russia and there was no collusion between his campaign and the Kremlin during the 2016 election. How does he know this? He keeps repeating it on his show over and over and over again until in his simple little ...read more

• By Ben Cohen
  Jun 20, 2017

Yet more signs of extreme panic are coming out of the White House over the Mueller investigation into Trump's potential obstruction of justice over Russiagate. Not only has Vice President Mike Pence lawyered up with private counsel in advance of the oncoming shitstorm, Trump's ...read more

• By Ben Cohen
  Nov 9, 2018

The signs that the Trump administration and GOP are seriously panicked about FBI’s special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Donald Trump's alleged obstruction of justice are growing by the minute. Newt Gingrich went on a bizarre twitter tirade earlier, darkly warning ...read more

• By Ben Cohen
  Nov 9, 2018

After beating up on Jeff Sessions at the Senate testimony today, Sen. Kamala Harris took to twitter to continue roasting him for his maddening performance that consisted of him apparently not recalling or remembering anything. Harris also took exception to senators attempting to ...read more

• By Ben Cohen
  Nov 9, 2018

Immediately following the November election, then FBI Director James Comey was on every Democrat’s hit list of people to blame for Hillary Clinton’s loss. Now, one month after President Trump fired him, Comey's been transformed into a political victim. Over the course of two and ...read more

• By Alyona Minkovski
  Nov 9, 2018

The most important moment from the Comey hearing today occurred when Sen. James Risch (R-ID) grilled former FBI director James Comey about his one on one meeting with Trump. This interaction between the two men proves that president Trump did indeed attempt to obstruct justice ...read more

• By Ben Cohen
  Nov 9, 2018

Tough luck for anyone who was hoping to feel satisfied after watching Megyn Kelly’s much anticipated interview with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The roughly 10 minute discussion was featured on the debut episode of NBC’s new program, Sunday Night with Megyn Kelly. While she ...read more

• By Alyona Minkovski
  Jun 5, 2017

Right now, the US is on the midst of a leadership crisis not seen since the fall of Richard Nixon in 1974. The revelations about the Trump campaign's potential ties to the Russian government are spilling out on an hourly basis, and the Trump administration careens from one ...read more

• By Ben Cohen
  May 18, 2017

Faced with overwhelming evidence that his beloved President is a lying child who spilled state secrets to Russia, tried to cover up an F.B.I investigation into his campaign's ties to the Kremlin, and is most likely on his way to impeachment, Sean Hannity's world is falling apart ...read more

• By Ben Cohen
  May 17, 2017

The news broke today that Donald Trump leaked highly sensitive and classified information to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Russian Ambassador to the U.S. Sergey Kislyak. The White House has denied the allegation, calling the story "false", but the astonishing ...read more

• By Ben Cohen
  May 15, 2017

In this week's edition of Banter M: Conspiracy Theorizing About Trump/Russia and the Firing of James Comey - Bob Cesca puts his conspiracy theory hat on and contemplates what could be the real story behind Trump's firing of James Comey. While unproven as yet, these ideas could ...read more

• By The Editors
  Nov 9, 2018

In the wake of Donald Trump's shocking firing of F.B.I chief James Comey yesterday, his supporters have been desperate to figure out a coherent explanation of its timing that didn't involve the president covering up the ongoing investigation into his campaign's ties with Russia. ...read more

• By Ben Cohen
  Nov 9, 2018

It's been several years since I last covered the insufferable defiance of the "left libertarian" wing of the progressive movement -- specifically, and for lack of a better term, the Glenn "Greenwald left," mostly orbiting the misadventures of Edward Snowden as he remains a ...read more

• By Bob Cesca
  Nov 9, 2018