by Steve Benen | Jan 8, 2026 | Maddowblog, Politics
As the public started to learn about the news out of Minneapolis, where an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent shot and killed an unarmed woman, the Trump administration wasted little time in settling on a narrative: The victim, a 37-year-old mom named Renee Nicole Good, was the villain of the story.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem wasn’t alone in the rhetorical push, but she took a leadership role in the propaganda campaign. Talking to reporters at an event in Texas, the South Dakota Republican insisted that the ICE officer was responding to “an act of domestic terrorism.”
Noem later floated a weird conspiracy theory, in which she argued that there’s some kind of “coordinated” effort underway in which “people are being trained” to use vehicles as weapons.
The DHS secretary likely knew local officials were already discrediting her claims as she made them. Similarly, Noem probably realized the video evidence of what transpired left little doubt that her and the Trump administration’s twisted version of events was false.
But the secretary had a counter-narrative to sell, which she pushed without regard for accuracy, decency or concern for her vanishing credibility.
This did not go unnoticed on Capitol Hill. NOTUS reported:
Democratic Rep. Robin Kelly announced on Wednesday plans to introduce articles of impeachment against Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, following a deadly shooting involving immigration officers in Minneapolis earlier in the day.
“Secretary Kristi Noem is an incompetent leader, a disgrace to our democracy, and I am impeaching her for obstruction of justice, violation of public trust, and self-dealing,” Kelly said in a press release. “It’s one thing to be incompetent and dangerous, but it’s impeachable to
by Jason Page | Jan 8, 2026 | Opinion, Politics, Sports
The Baltimore Ravens’ decision to fire Super Bowl-winning head Coach John Harbaugh after Sunday’s season-ending loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers kept them out of the playoffs wasn’t surprising to those of us who closely follow the NFL. Harbaugh had coached the team for 18 years, the Ravens had underperformed, and sometimes a new voice is needed in the locker room.
Sports teams have often had to choose between a coach who’s been successful in the past and a superstar player they need to be successful now. In this case, the Ravens had to choose between Harbaugh, who won Super Bowl XLVII in 2012 and quarterback Lamar Jackson, a two-time NFL MVP.
The Ravens underperformed, and sometimes a new voice is needed in the locker room.
If changes are to come, then the Ravens’ salary constraints necessitated Harbaugh that Harbaugh be the one to go. Harbaugh knows the industry as well as anyone and surely understands why the Ravens decided as they did. And because he’s still under contract for two more seasons, he’ll still be getting paid.
But Wednesday morning, a typical end-of-the-season-coach-carousel story got injected with politics when President Donald Trump made a Truth Social post directed at other NFL teams that read: “HIRE JOHN HARBAUGH, FAST. HE, AND HIS BROTHER, ARE TOTAL WINNERS!!!”It’s worth noting that Harbaugh and his brother Los Angeles Chargers Coach Jim Harbaugh met President Trump in the Oval Office in July. John Harbaugh defended his decision to meet with Trump to a reporter at Ravens training camp who asked why he’d meet with him after Trump’s disparaging remarks about Baltimore. “It was amazing. It was awesome. And
by Steve Benen | Jan 7, 2026 | Maddowblog, Politics
During the government shutdown a few months ago, the Trump administration started cutting energy grants to states, but the only states that were seriously affected were ones that Donald Trump lost in last year’s elections. Last month, federal lawyers conceded in a court filing that this was not a coincidence.
On the contrary, two months after officials in blue states accused the White House of “mafioso tactics,” administration officials were unexpectedly candid in acknowledging that they did precisely what they were accused of doing. “[C]onsideration of partisan politics is constitutionally permissible,” they argued.
Perhaps, though it’s worth considering just how often the Republican White House “considers” partisan politics when cutting off public resources. My MS NOW colleague Julianne McShane reported:
The Trump administration froze $10 billion in funding for social services programs in five Democratic-led states on Tuesday, citing concerns about fraud that have not been substantiated with evidence, a Health and Human Services official confirmed to MS NOW on Tuesday.
The freeze affects programs that provide support to low-income families, including Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, which provides cash assistance for living expenses; the Child Care Development Fund, which helps low-income families access child care; and social services grants that primarily support at-risk children.
The states affected are Minnesota (which Trump lost by 4 points), New York (which Trump lost by 12 points), California (which Trump lost by 20 points), Illinois (which Trump lost by 11 points) and Colorado (which Trump lost by 11 points).
No red states were included in the funding freeze, which will inevitably cause real hardships on countless struggling families.
The developments come against a backdrop in which Trump and his team
by Steve Benen | Jan 7, 2026 | Maddowblog, Politics
It’s become rather difficult to keep track of all the Fox News veterans who have joined Donald Trump’s team during his second term. A year ago, The New York Times published a tally and found 19 “former Fox News hosts, commentators, on-air medical experts, producers and other personnel” who had landed jobs in the Republican administration. Soon after, Media Matters published a revised total, putting the number at 20.
That list did not include Attorney General Pam Bondi, who briefly moonlighted as a guest host of a Fox News program while she was serving as Florida’s chief law enforcement official.
The list has continued to grow. In March, the president appointed Fox News personalities Laura Ingraham and Maria Bartiromo to the Kennedy Center board. A month later, he appointed Bo Dietl, another Fox vet, to serve on a Department of Homeland Security advisory council. The month after that, Trump tapped Fox News’ Jeanine Pirro to serve as a U.S. attorney.
As 2026 gets underway, the list is growing once again. Politico reported:
The Senate confirmed journalist Sara Carter to oversee federal drug policy by a 52-48 vote Tuesday.
A former Fox News contributor who has reported on drug trafficking, Carter will lead the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy as President Donald Trump’s top drug policy adviser.
The final vote in the chamber fell largely along party lines, though Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky voted with the Democratic minority against the nominee.
Every previous head of the Office of National Drug Control Policy — the position generally known as the nation’s “drug czar” — had served in some kind of public office before taking
by Steve Benen | Jan 7, 2026 | Maddowblog, Politics
Donald Trump has made little effort to hide his interest in controlling Venezuela’s oil reserves, especially now that the Republican administration, in the president’s own words, is “in charge” of the South American country.
But late Monday afternoon, Trump broke new ground with an announcement published to his social media platform. It read, in its entirety:
I am pleased to announce that the Interim Authorities in Venezuela will be turning over between 30 and 50 MILLION Barrels of High Quality, Sanctioned Oil, to the United States of America. This Oil will be sold at its Market Price, and that money will be controlled by me, as President of the United States of America, to ensure it is used to benefit the people of Venezuela and the United States! I have asked Energy Secretary Chris Wright to execute this plan, immediately. It will be taken by storage ships, and brought directly to unloading docks in the United States. Thank you for your attention to this matter!
According to a New York Times report, 50 million barrels of oil could have a market value of as much as $3 billion.
The list of questions surrounding this policy is not short, and as a Bloomberg News report noted, the White House offered “few details” as to what in the world the president was talking about.
Did officials in Venezuela actually agree to “turn over” these resources to the U.S., or did Trump just make all of this up? For now, we don’t know. When might this happen? For now, we don’t know that, either. If this is happening, is Venezuela getting anything in return for this oil? For
by Jennifer Bouek | Jan 7, 2026 | Opinion, Politics
While the U.S. economy was half asleep over the holidays, many parents still had to work and, thus, many child care centers were still open. Now, low-income families and the child care centers that provide care and education for their children have another stressor on their plate: the threat of funding cuts.
On Dec. 26, 23-year-old YouTuber Nick Shirley and conservative lobbyist David Hoch posted a video to YouTube claiming to surface evidence of a $100 million fraud scandal involving subsidized child care centers in Minnesota. The duo’s video eventually resulted in President Donald Trump’s administration announcing a freezing of $10 billion in social services funds for five states led by Democrats, including Minnesota. And Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the former Democratic vice presidential candidate running for a third term as governor, announced Monday that he was abandoning that effort because of long-running scandals over fraud in the state’s social services, including child care, some of which have resulted in convictions.
Shirley’s video could lead to center closures and thousands of families across Minnesota losing access to child care.
The authors of this piece take fraud seriously. Still, because we study the limited amount of affordable quality child care nationwide, we know that the ripple effects of Shirley’s video could lead to center closures and thousands of families across Minnesota losing access to child care.
When Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services Jim O’Neill posted to X last week that he had “turned off the money spigot,” he was referring to the federal funding Minnesota uses to offer child care subsidies for low-income and moderate-income families. This “spigot” is more like a rusty
