About Peter Beinart

Peter Beinart is an American columnist, journalist, and political commentator. A former editor of The New Republic, he has also written for Time, and The New York Times among other periodicals. He is also the author of three books. You can follow him on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/peterbeinart, and on Substack at: https://peterbeinart.substack.com

Say It Ain’t So Joe!

Many progressives will abhor the following statement, but so be it: There’s a lot I admire about former Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman. And it’s precisely because of that admiration that I dearly hope he doesn’t accept the poisoned chalice that Donald Trump is reportedly considering offering him: Director of the FBI. …

2017-05-25T09:01:38-04:00By |

American Institutions Strike Back

The bad news is that Donald Trump is the most incompetent president in modern American history. The good news is that Donald Trump is the most incompetent president in modern American history. He was too incompetent to understand his own health care bill, or accurately describe the direction in which the “armada” designed to intimidate North Korea was heading, or restrain himself from disclosing highly ...

2017-05-17T18:21:29-04:00By |

Braggart in Chief

Why did Donald Trump last week reveal highly classified, potentially life-endangering, intelligence to Russia’s foreign minister? Because he wanted to impress him. “In his conversations with the Russian officials,” reports Reuters, “Trump appeared to be boasting about his knowledge of the looming threats, telling them he was briefed on ‘great intel every day.’” …

2017-05-17T18:18:42-04:00By |

L’Etat, C’est Trump

Thank you, Kellyanne Conway. On Thursday on Fox News, the President’s most polished defender told America the truth about why Donald Trump fired James Comey: Trump “expects people who are serving in his administration to be loyal to the country and to be loyal to the administration.” And he sees no distinction between the two. …

2017-05-17T18:16:44-04:00By |

Enough With the Charges of Democratic Hypocrisy

Everything I’m about to write is obvious. But contesting things formerly considered obvious is part of what Donald Trump and his supporters do. It’s how they undermine pre-existing liberal democratic norms. So here goes. When Trump (in three separate tweets), Fox News and National Review call Democrats hypocrites for condemning Trump’s decision to fire James Comey after having criticized his stewardship of the FBI, they’re ...

2017-05-11T09:20:29-04:00By |

Trump’s Meeting With Abbas: Should We Laugh Or Cry?

“Mr. President, with you, we have hope.” So said Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas during his joint press conference at the White House on Wednesday. As with so much in the Donald Trump era, it’s hard to know whether to laugh or cry. …

2017-05-11T09:12:21-04:00By |

What Trump Still Doesn’t Understand About the Holocaust

Given his administration’s bizarre rhetorical struggles when it comes to anti-Semitism and the Holocaust, the bar for Donald Trump’s speech on Tuesday at the Holocaust Memorial Museum was low. All he really had to do was show he understands that anti-Semitism is bad, and that the Holocaust happened mostly to Jews. He did that, and more. At times, his speech was genuinely moving. It was ...

2017-04-30T09:14:06-04:00By |

How Trump Desecrates Memory Of Holocaust Survivors — Despite Fine Words

Donald Trump ended his speech yesterday at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum by talking about Gerda Weissmann Klein. For good reason; hers is an amazing story. While being liberated by the United States Army in May 1945, Weissmann — then 21 years old, white-haired and weighing 68 pounds — met an American Jewish lieutenant named Kurt Klein. A few months later they were engaged. ...

2017-04-30T08:52:45-04:00By |
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