by Steve Benen | Apr 14, 2026 | Maddowblog, News, Politics
Given her dreadful record, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard never should have been nominated in the first place. Given how poorly she fared during her confirmation process, Gabbard never should have been approved by Senate Republicans. The former congresswoman was confirmed 14 months ago nevertheless, and the results have been predictable.
In light of Gabbard’s many failures, controversies and embarrassments, few were surprised last week by reports that Donald Trump had considered firing the hapless DNI.
Gabbard appears to recognize, however, what she has to do to stay in the White House’s good graces. The conservative Washington Times reported:
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard fired a broadside at congressional Democrats on Monday by saying their 2019 impeachment of President Trump over his dealings with Ukraine was based on biased evidence and slipshod work from within the intelligence community.
The CIA whistleblower whose complaint became the basis of the impeachment was an anti-Trump registered Democrat who misled investigators about collaborating with Democrats, Ms. Gabbard said.
In a statement, the DNI argued that “deep-state actors within the Intelligence Community” secretly conspired to “usurp the will of the American people and impeach the duly-elected president of the United States,” whom she characterized as a poor and unsuspecting victim.
Her presentation (to the extent that one could credibly call it that) bordered on silly, which helps explain why it generated so little attention when Gabbard’s office released it.
But it pleased the DNI’s audience of one. On Tuesday morning, Trump used his social media platform to publish two items, both of which were built around the idea that Gabbard’s latest foolishness should help the president’s crusade to “expunge” his
by Steve Benen | Apr 14, 2026 | Congress, Maddowblog, News, Politics
In its 237-year history, the House of Representatives has only expelled six members. This week, that total was set to climb as at least two members, and perhaps as many as four, faced votes on expulsion resolutions that appeared to have bipartisan support.
Those votes are no longer necessary. MS NOW reported:
Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, announced Monday that he plans to retire from Congress, after facing mounting scrutiny over multiple allegations of sexual misconduct involving former staffers, including an affair with an aide who later died by suicide. […]
Gonzales is the second member of Congress to announce plans to step down while facing allegations of sexual misconduct in the span of a few hours. Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., also said he would leave the House after he was accused of sexual misconduct.
The Texas Republican’s written announcement said he’s filing his “retirement.” In case his word choice generated any confusion, however, it’s worth clarifying that Gonzales, who had already given up his re-election bid, is stepping down from his office this week, not at the end of his current term.
The demise of Swalwell’s and Gonzales’ political careers was increasingly likely in light of the seriousness of their scandals, and given the circumstances, it’s a safe bet that both parties’ leaders won’t be sad to see them go.
If it seems there has been an unusually high number of resignations over the past year or so, it’s not your imagination. Two sitting Republican senators (Ohio’s JD Vance and Florida’s Marco Rubio) resigned to join the Trump administration, as did one sitting Republican House member (Florida’s Mike Waltz). Another Democratic House member also resigned after
by Steve Benen | Apr 14, 2026 | Maddowblog, News, Politics
As this week got underway, the White House apparently wanted to focus on tax policy. Donald Trump made sure that didn’t happen, shifting the focus instead to his latest controversies related to religion.
On Sunday night, the president not only publicly slammed Pope Leo XIV, but the Republican also decided to use his social media platform to promote an image that appeared to present him as some kind of American Jesus.
As is often the case, it fell to JD Vance to try to help clean up the mess. Unfortunately for the vice president, that didn’t go especially well.
“I think the president was posting a joke” — JD Vance on Trump’s tweet depicting himself as Jesus — Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2026-04-13T22:29:20.926Z
On the image that drew rebukes from many of Trump’s own political allies, Vance told Fox News, “I think the president was posting a joke. And, of course, he took it down because he recognized that a lot of people weren’t understanding his humor in that case. I think the president of the United States likes to mix it up on social media.”
The problem with this sad defense is that we know it’s untrue. We know this for certain because Trump said so: Hours before Vance’s on-air comments, the president specifically told reporters that he wasn’t trying to be funny, but rather, promoted the image because, as he put it, “I thought it was me as a doctor. … It’s supposed to be me as a doctor, making people better.”
To be sure, that defense was quite bonkers given the relevant details, but it was also the opposite of the defense his vice
by Jackie Powell | Apr 14, 2026 | Opinion, Politics, Sports
The WNBA and the Women’s National Basketball Players Association hunkered down for eight days and spent more than 100 hours working to ensure their employees would be paid properly and that there would be a 2026 season.
Monday night’s WNBA draft, in which UCLA’s Lauren Betts, UConn’s Azzi Fudd and TCU’s Olivia Miles can expect to hear their names early, is a testament to the opposing sides’ willingness to work through their differences and keep the people whose livelihoods depended on their negotiations in mind.
What a contrast league officials and union officials are to congressional leaders.
The collective bargaining agreement represents the “largest salary jump in all of sports history” and will usher in the league’s first million-dollar players.
What a contrast league officials and union officials are to congressional leaders who, almost 60 days into a partial government shutdown, still have not reached an agreement. In fact, Congress took a two-week Easter recess that ends this week. In the meantime, employees of the Department of Homeland Security, including members of the Coast Guard and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, have, for the most part, been working without pay.
The league and its players’ union worked it out — in a way that Congress has not yet been able to do.
To be clear, the majority of the process was not a bed of roses. The players opted out of their previous collective bargaining agreement (CBA) in October 2024, and during most of the intervening time, each side was directing hostility at the other. The players and their union were highly critical of what they called the league’s stalling tactics. The league took issue
by Steve Benen | Apr 13, 2026 | Maddowblog, News, Politics
When the Biden administration and congressional Democrats approved the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022, the legislative package included an idea that seemed long overdue: It directed the Treasury Department to create the IRS Direct File system to make it easier for Americans to file their tax returns at no cost, as taxpayers in many other countries already do.
It was implemented in 2024 and proved predictably popular with the public. There was no great mystery as to why: People like free things, especially when it comes to dealing with government bureaucracies they’d rather avoid anyway. The result was a program that demonstrated that the federal government can function more efficiently and make Americans’ lives a little easier.
Then the 2024 presidential election happened.
As if on cue, lobbyists for the commercial tax preparation industry asked the Trump administration to reverse course and abandon the policy. Republican officials quickly agreed and ended Direct File after a successful one-year experiment.
As Tax Day arrives this week, The New York Times’ Binyamin Appelbaum lamented the unnecessary demise of a worthwhile program.
More affluent households are probably stuck paying for tax prep, at least as long as the tax code retains anything like its current complexity.
But there is simply no good reason that those 100 million households should have to pay to file their taxes. The government ought to regard the existence of a tax preparation industry for standard returns as a parasite on the body politic. Intuit and its rivals are collecting fees for a service that should not exist.
Appelbaum’s column added that the source code for Direct File is sitting in an online repository. “All that’s missing
by Steve Benen | Apr 13, 2026 | Maddowblog, Media, News, Politics
Last summer, after The Wall Street Journal reported on Donald Trump’s alleged 2003 birthday letter to Jeffrey Epstein, the president responded with unsubtle threats. “President Trump will be suing The Wall Street Journal, NewsCorp, and Mr. Murdoch, shortly,” he wrote online, referring to himself in the third person for reasons unknown.
The Republican added soon after, “The Wall Street Journal printed a FAKE letter, supposedly to Epstein. These are not my words, not the way I talk. Also, I don’t draw pictures. I told Rupert Murdoch it was a Scam, that he shouldn’t print this Fake Story. But he did, and now I’m going to sue his ass off, and that of his third rate newspaper.”
In mid-July, the president did, in fact, file the defamation suit, seeking a jury trial and a judgment of at least $10 billion. At least for now, it now appears he will get neither. The Journal reported:
A federal judge on Monday dismissed President Trump’s defamation lawsuit against the publisher of The Wall Street Journal.
U.S. District Judge Darrin Gayles, based in Miami, Fla., ruled Trump hadn’t made a valid legal claim that he was defamed by an article about a letter to financier Jeffrey Epstein bearing Trump’s name.
“Because President Trump has not plausibly alleged that defendants published the article with actual malice, both Counts must be dismissed,” the jurist wrote.
We’ll learn soon enough whether the president’s lawyers appeal and/or file an amended lawsuit, but as things stand, his highly dubious and historically unusual civil case is no more.
If it seems as if Trump has faced related failures before, it’s not your imagination. Indeed, one of the most striking things
