by Kansas Rep. Abi Boatman | Mar 1, 2026 | Opinion, Politics
In August 2001, I enlisted in the U.S. Air Force to serve our country. In 2009, my service brought me to Kansas and McConnell Air Force Base. I now proudly serve the people of Wichita as the state representative for House District 86, and I am the second transgender legislator in Kansas history. I believe in freedom, dignity and respect for others, and I believe that those of us in public service should focus on solving the problems facing our communities instead of manufacturing crises that unnecessarily pit us against one another. But it is obvious that in that regard, I stand with a minority of state lawmakers in Kansas.
Last week, one of the most sweeping and intrusive anti-trans laws in the nation went into effect in Kansas.
Last week, one of the most sweeping and intrusive anti-trans laws in the nation went into effect in Kansas. The first part of this law immediately invalidated the driver’s licenses, state IDs and birth certificates for thousands of Kansas residents who have changed their gender marker on state documents legally. The second part mandates sex segregation requirements for “multiple-occupancy private space,” which includes restrooms, hospital rooms, dorm rooms and more. The third part lets someone who believes they see somebody transgender breaking the law file a lawsuit for “damages” up to $1,000. Their reports would be investigated by Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach.
Supporters of the law claim it’s about safety. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, despite repeated assertions that this law is necessary to protect women and children in private spaces, the statute includes a clause that lets
by Steve Benen | Feb 25, 2026 | Maddowblog, Politics
When it comes to the Justice Department’s files on Jeffrey Epstein, the Republican Party’s line has focused on a single talking point: None of the contents pose a problem for Donald Trump, who’s long denied any wrongdoing. Indeed, the president himself has repeatedly insisted that the latest disclosures have “100% exonerated” him in the scandal.
Those boasts appear to have been entirely based on nothing. Making matters considerably worse, however, the problem isn’t limited to what was in the Epstein files, it also includes what still remains unreleased from the files. MS NOW reported:
The Justice Department has withheld notes and memos reflecting FBI interviews from its release of the Epstein files, including interviews with a woman who accused President Donald Trump of sexually abusing her when she was a minor, MS NOW has confirmed.
NPR reported on Tuesday that more than 50 pages of notes and memos reflecting FBI interviews with the woman are not found in the Justice Department’s publicly released database of documents related to convicted and deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The unnamed accuser, who was interviewed by FBI officials at least four times, raised serious allegations against Trump, but only one memo related to her was included in the Justice Department’s online disclosures, and handwritten notes from the interviews were excluded altogether.
BREAKING: NPR, MS NOW: Trump-related files missing from DOJ Epstein file release.MS NOW Senior Legal Reporter Lisa Rubin explains— MS NOW (@ms.now) 2026-02-24T15:26:29.499Z
None of this was lost on congressional Democrats, including Rep. Robert Garcia of California, the ranking member on the House Oversight Committee, who wasted little time in raising concerns about whether this was part of a
by Steve Benen | Feb 25, 2026 | Maddowblog, Politics
Vice President JD Vance made a rare appearance in the White House briefing room last month to announce some news: The administration would soon have a new assistant attorney general who would focus exclusively on fraud investigations.
The move was controversial for a variety of reasons, including the facts that, according to the vice president, the assistant AG’s work would be “run out of the White House” instead of the Justice Department, and that the prosecutor would report to him and Donald Trump instead of to the attorney general.
Nevertheless, a few weeks later, Trump nominated Colin McDonald to serve as the first-ever “assistant attorney general for national fraud enforcement.” Some conservative outlets soon after started referring to McDonald as the nation’s first “fraud czar,” and it wasn’t long before Team Trump embraced the label.
In his State of the Union address, the president took some additional steps down the same path. From the transcript:
[W]hen it comes to the corruption that is plundering — it really, it’s plundering America — there’s been no more stunning example than Minnesota, where members of the Somali community have pillaged an estimated $19 billion from the American taxpayer. Oh, we have all the information.
And in actuality the number is much higher than that, and California, Massachusetts, Maine and many other states are even worse. This is the kind of corruption that shreds the fabric of a nation, and we are working on it like you wouldn’t believe. So tonight, although started four months ago, I am officially announcing the war on fraud to be led by our great vice president, JD Vance. He’ll get it done. And
by Steve Benen | Feb 24, 2026 | Maddowblog, Politics
At a White House event ostensibly focused on immigrant crime, Donald Trump did what he nearly always does: The president peddled election conspiracy theories, pretended he won the 2020 race that he lost and falsely accused Democrats of cheating. The Republican did, however, add an ugly new twist to his usual pitch.
For the first time, Trump told the families of people killed by undocumented immigrants that their loved ones would still be alive if the 2020 race hadn’t been “rigged.”
By any fair standard of decency, the rhetoric was abhorrent, and no leader of any character would try to exploit grieving families’ pain to advance conspiratorial lies. Trump did it anyway.
The president did not, however, offer any evidence to support his nonsensical claims. Despite years of palaver, he’s never presented anything to bolster his assertions related to his 2020 defeat.
That said, it’s important to emphasize that Trump’s Justice Department is making a diligent effort to find the evidence that would tell the president what he wants to hear. It’s also important to emphasize that the search isn’t going well. The Washington Post reported:
The Justice Department has struggled to meet White House demands to prosecute noncitizen voters as conspiracy theories that President Donald Trump and his allies have pushed in public fail to hold up legally.
The president has grown increasingly frustrated with the lack of results, advisers said, leading to his public pronouncements about nationalizing elections and requiring voter ID, which he lacks the authority to do unilaterally.
According to the Post’s reporting, which has not been independently verified by MS NOW, leading DOJ officials have met regularly with officials from Homeland Security
by Steve Benen | Feb 24, 2026 | Economy, Maddowblog, Politics
In JD Vance’s most recent Fox News interview, the vice president gave Donald Trump’s daughter-in-law a sneak peek into this year’s State of the Union address. The president, Vance said, would tout the “Trump boom” in the economy.
That’s going to be a tough sell.
There’s already ample evidence the American mainstream isn’t buying what the White House is selling. The latest national Associated Press poll found just 39% approved of Trump’s handling of the economy. The latest Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll showed similar results.
But the problem is not just public perception. There are a variety of metrics to consider when evaluating the economy, but let’s consider the three benchmarks that are arguably the most important.
Jobs: It was just a couple of weeks ago when we learned that (excluding the 2020 pandemic) the first year of Trump’s second term was the worst for U.S. job creation since the Great Recession. If we exclude years in which the economy fell into recession, 2025 was the worst year for U.S. job growth since 2003. To date, the White House has made no effort to explain why job growth in the United States got so much worse after Trump returned to power. (The unemployment rate also inched higher in 2025, which the president also hasn’t explained.)
Economic growth: Just last week, the public learned that the nation’s gross domestic product grew at a 2.2% pace across all of 2025, down from 2.8% in 2024. Excluding the pandemic, the first year of Trump’s second term showed the weakest economic growth in the U.S. in nine years. The White House hasn’t explained why this happened, either.
Inflation: There are
by Steve Benen | Feb 23, 2026 | Maddowblog, Politics
A few years into his first term, Donald Trump declared with pride, “There are those that say we have one of the finest Cabinets.” The president didn’t elaborate as to who, exactly, had made such an assessment, which was just as well since he appeared to be making up the praise out of whole cloth.
In fact, the Republican’s first-term cabinet was a mess. The public saw ill-equipped secretaries, many of whom struggled mightily in their roles, some of whom were caught up in ethics scandals, and a few of whom were even referred to the Justice Department for possible criminal prosecution. Trump even ended up publicly clashing with his own choices for his Cabinet, in some instances.
But a month into the sixth year of Trump’s presidency, it’s probably fair to say that his second-term Cabinet is worse. Politico reported on Saturday:
President Donald Trump is mired in the most difficult stretch of his presidency. His Cabinet is only making his life harder. As he prepares for a primetime address to the nation on Tuesday, storm clouds hang overhead. […]
At seemingly every turn, Trump’s increasingly off-message Cabinet is undermining his administration’s broader agenda.
Last week, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries sat down with MS NOW’s Jen Psaki, and the host mentioned plans to deploy Cabinet members as surrogates in competitive districts ahead of the midterm elections. The New York Democrat, who is not known for showing his emotions on his sleeve, couldn’t help but smile.
To be sure, the problem is not altogether new. The New York Times’ Frank Bruni wrote a hard-hitting column last year that read in part:
As President Trump’s crackerjack cabinet
