by Steve Benen | Mar 9, 2026 | Maddowblog, Politics
On the campaign trail in 2024, Donald Trump recognized that Americans were still deeply concerned about inflation and the cost of living, despite the improving conditions after the 2022 spike. To that end, the Republican candidate focused heavily on the issue and made all kinds of bold promises about “Day One” improvements, all while struggling with the most basic of questions: What would he actually do on the issue?
When pressed, he tended to focus on gas prices. To hear Trump tell it, he would focus obsessively on drilling for oil, everywhere and all of the time, which he said would lower gas prices, which in turn would make it more affordable to transport goods to marketplaces, which in turn would lower prices.
It was, to be sure, a highly dubious pitch rooted in suspect assumptions, but it was a line much of the electorate was willing to embrace, as evidenced by his return to power.
The gap between what Trump promised to deliver and what he has delivered is enormous — and growing. As The New York Times summarized, “Oil prices surged on Monday in a sign of growing concern that the war in the Middle East will continue to take a toll on energy supplies, raising gas prices for American consumers and weighing on the stock market.”
The Washington Post added, “The average cost of a gallon of regular gasoline in the U.S. increased by 34 cents in the last week to $3.32 on Friday, according to AAA. The cost of diesel has grown even more significantly and analysts expect the price of both fuels to keep climbing.”
Broadly speaking, the benchmark metric
by Steve Benen | Mar 9, 2026 | Congress, Maddowblog, Politics
As 2026 got underway and much of the political world prepared to acknowledge the fifth anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack, House Speaker Mike Johnson’s office made an announcement: Federal law required Congress to install a permanent plaque to honor the law enforcement personnel who helped protect the U.S. Capitol against pro-Trump rioters, but as far as Johnson was concerned, the statute that authorized the plaque was “not implementable.”
Now, two months later, the public has received an unexpected surprise. The Washington Post reported:
The police officers were taunted and beaten. Some were knocked unconscious and dragged down stone steps, tear gas stinging their throats, to chants of ‘U.S.A! U.S.A!’ on Jan. 6, 2021, as hundreds, then thousands, swarmed the citadel of American democracy.
Now, more than five years later, and three years since Congress ignored its own deadline to install it, a memorial plaque recognizing the service of law enforcement that day is finally on display in the very building they defended from a mob of President Donald Trump’s supporters intent on overturning his 2020 election loss.
To briefly recap, after the insurrectionist violence five years ago, Congress agreed to install a plaque to honor law enforcement officers who helped protect the U.S. Capitol against pro-Trump rioters. By statute, the plaque was to be placed on the western side of the building by March 2023. The plaque was ready by that deadline, but it sat in a Capitol basement utility room surrounded by tools and maintenance equipment.
That is, until early Saturday, when workers, without fanfare or controversy, bolted the plaque to a wall near an entrance on the west front of the
by Steve Benen | Mar 9, 2026 | Iran Tensions, Maddowblog, Politics
On the first day of the U.S. war in Iran, there was an apparent strike on an Iranian girls’ school that killed scores of children, and a Reuters report noted that U.S. military investigators “believe it is likely that U.S. forces were responsible for” the deadly incident.
Though the Reuters report was not independently verified by MS NOW, it dovetailed with a detailed analysis from The New York Times that indicated the school building “was severely damaged by a precision strike that occurred at the same time as attacks on an adjacent naval base operated by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.” On Monday morning, a related Times report added, “A newly released video adds to the evidence that an American missile likely hit an Iranian elementary school where 175 people, many of them children, were reported killed.”
If these assessments hold, the strike on the Shajarah Tayyebeh elementary school building would rank among the worst cases of U.S. civilian casualties in decades.
Over the course of the first week of the conflict, Donald Trump said effectively nothing about the deadly incident, but during a Q&A with reporters aboard Air Force One on the seventh day of the war, the president was asked whether the United States had bombed the school.
“No,” he replied. “No. In my opinion and based on what I’ve seen, that was done by Iran. … We think it was done by Iran.”
Reporter: Did the US bomb an elementary school and kill 175 people?Trump: Based on what I’ve seen, it was done by Iran. Reporter: Is that true Mr. Hegseth?Hegseth: We’re investigating.Trump: They are very inaccurate with their munitions. It was
by Sen. Chris Coons | Mar 9, 2026 | Opinion, Politics
President Trump’s stunning and reckless lack of planning before launching us into a war with Iran was a striking and costly failure of leadership. We are more than a week into the largest war the region has seen in years, without a clear sense of why or for how long. The president may not care about these questions, but I do — and Americans deserve answers to them right now.
Let’s be clear — the brutal Iranian regime deserves to be wiped away. It has the blood of thousands of Americans on its hands going back decades, and, just this year, it massacred thousands of Iranian protesters. Iran has consistently talked about wiping Israel and the United States off the map and has worked at some level for years to develop that capability.
We are more than a week into the largest war the region has seen in years, without a clear sense of why or for how long.
While this brutal dictatorship’s end would be a markedly good thing for the world, that’s not enough to justify sacrificing American lives or raising prices for Americans already struggling to make ends meet. We all saw the high and deadly cost of a war of regime change in Iraq — and that followed months of deliberation and planning and followed the express authorization of Congress. We’re jumping into this lethal endeavor almost casually. I pray I’m wrong, but the most likely outcome from this war of choice is chaos and civil war — followed by an even more brutal and repressive regime.
To understand where we are today, we have to begin last year. From
by Steve Benen | Mar 6, 2026 | Iran Tensions, Maddowblog, Politics
When Donald Trump spoke to ABC News’ Jonathan Karl on Thursday, he was eager to talk about how pleased he was with himself and his decision to start a war in Iran. “I hope you are impressed,” the Republican president said. “How do you like the performance? I mean, Venezuela is obvious. This might be even better. How do you like the performance?”
When Karl explained that the public had real concerns about what happens next, Trump replied, “Forget about ‘next.’”
That three-word reply offered a valuable insight into his perspective: Trump apparently doesn’t want to be bothered about consequences. To the contrary, there’s reason to believe he and his team want to have fun with the war.
On Wednesday, the White House released a brief video via social media that combined real footage of combat in Iran and computer-generated sequences from a popular combat video game. A day later, Team Trump followed that up with another online video that spliced together snippets from popular action movies (Tom Cruise features prominently) with war footage, alongside text that read, “JUSTICE THE AMERICAN WAY.”
This is a real video from the official White House account on a war that is currently killing people. I don’t know how the US is going to come back from this.The post was “JUSTICE THE AMERICAN WAY. ”— Ulrike Franke (@rikefranke.bsky.social) 2026-03-06T08:22:47.767Z
It was against this backdrop that Time magazine’s Eric Cortellessa spoke to the president and asked a good question. From the report:
Iran retaliated with missile and drone bombardments against U.S. bases and allied territory, targeting military facilities across the Gulf, including Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar. One Iranian drone
by Steve Benen | Mar 6, 2026 | 2026 election, Congress, Maddowblog, Politics
It’s been a busy year for congressional retirements, with members giving up their seats at a pace unseen in recent memory. Some departures, however, stand out more than others.
On Thursday night, Republican Rep. Tony Gonzalez of Texas announced he would be dropping his re-election bid. The news caps a tumultuous week for the embattled lawmaker.
Gonzales of Texas was pressured to end his career ahead of his recent primary race, but the incumbent congressman shrugged off his critics from both parties and took his chances with local voters. With roughly 42% of the vote, Gonzales didn’t exactly win a ringing endorsement, and his totals trailed far-right internet personality Brandon Herrera’s 43%, but since neither candidate topped 50% support, they both advanced to a May runoff.
pic.twitter.com/3FyKF6V3cb— Rep. Tony Gonzales (@RepTonyGonzales) March 6, 2026
A day later, however, the GOP lawmaker’s troubles went from bad to worse. Less than 24 hours after the primary ballots were counted, the House Ethics Committee announced that it was moving forward with its investigation into Gonzales, specifically scrutinizing whether he “engaged in sexual misconduct towards an individual employed in his congressional office.” Around the same time, one of his own GOP congressional colleagues filed a censure resolution against the Texan.
Soon after, Gonzales acknowledged what many already assumed: The congressman, a married father of six, had an affair with a staffer who later died by suicide.
The confession did not end his political crisis. On the contrary, the entirety of the House Republican leadership issued a joint statement the morning after Gonzales’ acknowledgement, calling on the Texan “to withdraw from his race for re-election.”
Short on friends and options, he reversed
